Effects of a Degeneracy in the Competition Model Part I. Classical and Generalized Steady-State Solutions

We study the competition model where the coefficient functions are strictly positive over the underlying spatial region Ω except b(x), which vanishes in a nontrivial subdomain of Ω, and is positive in the rest of Ω. We show that there exists a critical number λ* such that if λ <λ*, then the model behaves similarly to the well-studied classical competition model where all the coefficient functions are positive constants, but when λ>λ*, new phenomena occur. Our results demonstrate the fact that heterogeneous environmental effects on population models are not only quantitative, but can be qualitative as well. In part I here, we mainly study two kinds of steady-state solutions which determine the dynamics of the model: one consists of finite functions while the other consists of generalized functions which satisfy (u, v)=(∞, 0) on the part of the domain that b(x) vanishes, but are positive and finite on the rest of the domain, and are determined by certain boundary blow-up systems. The research is continued in part II, where these two kinds of steady-state solutions will be used to determine the dynamics of the model.