Global stability for multi-species Lotka–Volterra cooperative systems: One hyper-connected mutualistic-species

Abstract

We propose two models of one hyper-connected mutualistic-species described by delay differential equations of Lotka–Volterra type. An hyper-connected model comprises a central species interacting with a number of peripheral species around it, that is to say, one animal species (pollinators or dispersers) that interacts with several plant species (flowering plants or fruit trees), or several animal species that interact with one plant species. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the global asymptotic stability of the unique coexisting steady state of hyper-connected systems by means of novel Lyapunov functionals.