Spatially synchronous extinction of species under external forcing.
More than 99% of the species that ever existed on the surface of the Earth are now extinct and their extinction on a global scale has been a puzzle. One may think that a species under an external threat may survive in some isolated locations leading to the revival of the species. Using a general model we show that, under a common external forcing, the species with a quadratic saturation term first undergoes spatial synchronization and then extinction. The effect can be observed even when the external forcing acts only on some locations provided the dynamics contains a synchronizing term. Absence of the quadratic saturation term can help the species to avoid extinction.
Amritkar
R E
RE
Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangapura, Ahmedabad - 380009, India. amritkar@prl.ernet.in
Rangarajan
Govindan
G
D000818:Animals; D003710:Demography; D004463:Ecology; D008954:Models, Biological; D011157:Population Dynamics