| Title: | Robust ecological pattern formation induced by demographic noise |
| Address: | "Department of Physics and Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA" |
| Journal Title: | Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.030902 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1550-2376 (Electronic) 1539-3755 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "We demonstrate that demographic noise can induce persistent spatial pattern formation and temporal oscillations in the Levin-Segel predator-prey model for plankton-herbivore population dynamics. Although the model exhibits a Turing instability in mean-field theory, demographic noise greatly enlarges the region of parameter space where pattern formation occurs. To distinguish between patterns generated by fluctuations and those present at the mean-field level in real ecosystems, we calculate the power spectrum in the noise-driven case and predict the presence of fat tails not present in the mean-field case. These results may account for the prevalence of large-scale ecological patterns, beyond that expected from traditional nonstochastic approaches" |
| Keywords: | "Animals *Ecosystem Feeding Behavior *Models, Biological Plankton/physiology Predatory Behavior;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineButler, Thomas Goldenfeld, Nigel eng Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. 2009/11/13 Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2009 Sep; 80(3 Pt 1):030902. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.030902. Epub 2009 Sep 15" |
