A diffusive competition model with a protection zone

This paper is concerned with a two species diffusive competition model with a protection zone for the weak competitor. Our mathematical results imply that when the protection zone is above a certain critical patch size determined by the birth rate of the weak competitor, the weak species almost always survives, but it cannot survive when the protection zone is below the critical size and its competitor is strong enough. While this is the main feature of the model, the actual dynamical behavior of the reaction-diffusion system is more complicated. The key to reveal the main feature of the system lies in a detailed analysis of the attracting regions of its steady-state solutions. Our mathematical analysis shows that, compared with the predator-prey model discussed in [Yihong Du, Junping Shi, A diffusive predator-prey model with a protect zone, J. Differential Equations 226 (2006) 63-91], the protection zone has some essentially different effects on the fine dynamics of the competition model.