The Effect of Habitat Destruction On the Multi-Species Competition System With Allee Effects

Allee effect is strongly related to the extinction vulnerability of populations, but no adequate attention has been paid to this phenomenon in multi-species system. Here, both the strong and the weak Allee effect are introduced into the multi-species competition model to explore the species dynamics in the process of habitat destruction. The results show that: (1) The Allee effect greatly affects the species persistence. In temperate forests, there exists a symmetry odds-even law for the persisting species. (2) The strong Allee effect with Allee threshold leads the species extinction time ahead, which is a more devastating factor. (3) Habitat destruction may be fatal to the Allee system. In tropical forest, there are two extinction mechanisms, while the poor competitors will always be the first victims in temperate forest. (4) The extinction debt is real, but the time-lag between habitat destruction and extinction species is highly dependent on the Allee effect and the community characteristics.