Asymptotic Profile of the Solution to a Free Boundary Problem Arising in a Shifting Climate Model

Abstract

We give a complete description of the long-time asymptotic profile of the solution to a free boundary model considered recently in [10]. This model describes the spreading of an invasive species in an environment which shifts with a constant speed, and the research of [10] indicates that the species may vanish, or spread successfully, or fall in a borderline case. In the case of successful spreading, the long-time behavior of the population is not completely understood in [10]. Here we show that the spreading of the species is governed by two traveling waves, one has the speed of the shifting environment, giving the profile of the retreating tail of the population, while the other has a faster speed determined by a semi-wave, representing the profile of the advancing front of the population.