Competitive exclusion and coexistence for a quasilinear size-structured population model

We present a quasilinear size-structured model which describes the dynamics of a population with it competing ecotypes. We assume that the vital rates of each subpopulation depend on the total population due to competition. We provide conditions on the individual rates which guarantee competitive exclusion in the case of closed reproduction (offspring always belongs to the same ecotype as the parent). In particular, our results suggest that the ratio of the reproduction and mortality rates is a good measure to determine the winning ecotype. Meanwhile, we show that in the case of open reproduction all ecotypes coexist. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Inc.