Competition in an <i>n</i>-Vessel Gradostat

Abstract

A mathematical model of the exploitative competition between two microbial species in a general multivessel gradostat is considered. Sufficient conditions for the two species to coexist in the gradostat are derived using the theory of monotone dynamical systems and global bifurcation theory. Numerical computations required to verify the hypotheses of the coexistence results suggest that coexistence is more likely as the number of vessels increases.