2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/160983We study the properties of Lotka-Volterra competitive models in which the intensity of the interaction among species depends on their position along an abstract niche space through a competition kernel. We show analytically and numerically that the properties of these models change dramatically when the Fourier transform of this kernel is not positive definite, due to a pattern forming instability. We estimate properties of the species distributions, such as the steady number of species and their spacings, for different types of kernels.4 pages, 3 figuresPopulations and EvolutionPattern Formation and Solitonstext