Numerical solutions of a three-competition Lotka-Volterra system

This paper is concerned with finite difference solutions of a Lotka-Volterra reaction-diffusion system with three-competing species. The reaction-diffusion system is discretized by the finite difference method, and the investigation is devoted to the finite difference system for the time-dependent solution and its asymptotic behavior in relation to the corresponding steady-state problem. Three monotone iterative schemes for the computation of the time-dependent solution are presented, and the sequences of iterations are shown to converge monotonically to a unique positive solution. Also discussed is the asymptotic behavior of the time-dependent solution in relation to various steady-state solutions. A simple condition on the competing rate constants is obtained, which ensures that for every nontrivial nonnegative initial function the corresponding time-dependent solution converges either to a unique positive steady-state solution or to one of the semitrivial steady-state solutions. The above results lead to the coexistence and permanence of the competing system as well as computational algorithms for numerical solutions. Some numerical results from these computational algorithms are given. All the conclusions for the reaction-diffusion equations are directly applicable to the finite difference solution of the corresponding ordinary differential system.