EFFECT OF DISPERSAL ON THE STABILITY OF SOME MODEL ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES

For an n-resource, m-consumer ecological community obeying MacArthur''s equations, the local stability of the equilibrium point will never be upset after diffusion terms for each component species are incorporated into the system. Such a system will lack diffusive structure in a homogeneous space. These results rest on the fact that in MacArthur''s equations there is no overt facilitation or interference among consumers; the results may be fragilely linked to this assumption.