Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 227, 983–993 (2018)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2018-800011-1

Regular Article

Diffusion induced spiral wave chimeras in ecological system

¹ Physics and Applied Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata 700108, India
² Department of Physics, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli 620024, India

^a e-mail: dibakar@isical.ac.in

Received: 31 January 2018
Received in final form: 28 March 2018
Published online: 19 October 2018

Abstract

The peculiar phenomenon of chimera state corresponds to the exceptional spatial concurrence of coherent and incoherent dynamical behaviors appearing in networks of coupled oscillatory systems. In the present article, we report the emergence of spiral wave chimera patterns in locally coupled ecological network composed of diffusible prey-predator species. Dynamical transitions from spiral wave states to spiral wave chimera followed by incoherent dynamics with respect to increasing diffusion coefficients are explained. We characterize all these dynamical states while going through the concept of strength of incoherence and computing radius of the spiral wave chimera core. We further validate this occurrence for metapopulation comprising of prey-predator species subject to cross-diffusion.