The dynamics of nonlocal diffusion problems with a free boundary in heterogeneous environment

Abstract

This paper studies two nonlocal diffusion problems with a free boundary and a fixed boundary in heterogeneous environment. The main goal is to understand how the evolution of the two species is affected by the heterogeneous environment. We first prove the existence and uniqueness of a global solution for such systems. Then, for models with Lotka–Volterra type competition or predator–prey growth terms, we establish the spreading‐vanishing dichotomy. Sharp criteria of spreading and vanishing are also obtained. Furthermore, we show that accelerated spreading occurs if and only if the kernel function violates the threshold condition.