https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2007-00178-7
Stochastic population dynamics in turbulent fields
1
Instituto de Física and Centro Internacional de Física da Matéria Condensada, Universidade de Brasília, CP 04513, 70919-970 Brasília, DF, Brazil
2
Departament de Física Fonamental, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
3
Integrative Biological Modeling Laboratory, Computational Biology Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, Box 460, New York, NY, 10021, USA
Corresponding author: mrubi@ub.edu
The behaviour of interacting populations typically displays irregular temporal and spatial patterns that are difficult to reconcile with an underlying deterministic dynamics. A classical example is the heterogeneous distribution of plankton communities, which has been observed to be patchy over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Here, we use plankton communities as prototype systems to present theoretical approaches for the analysis of the combined effects of turbulent advection and stochastic growth in the spatiotemporal dynamics of the population. Incorporation of these two factors into mathematical models brings an extra level of realism to the description and leads to better agreement with experimental data than that of previously proposed models based on reaction–diffusion equations.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2007
