title: Spatial variability enhances species fitness in stochastic predator-prey interactions.
abstract: We study the influence of spatially varying reaction rates on a spatial stochastic two-species Lotka-Volterra lattice model for predator-prey interactions using two-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations. The effects of this quenched randomness on population densities, transient oscillations, spatial correlations, and invasion fronts are investigated. We find that spatial variability in the predation rate results in more localized activity patches, which in turn causes a remarkable increase in the asymptotic population densities of both predators and prey and accelerated front propagation.
authors.affiliation: Christian Doppler Laboratory for Surface Optics, Johannes Kepler University, Altenbergerstrasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria. ulrich.dobramysl@jku.at
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dobramysl
authors.forename: Uwe C
authors.initials: UC
authors.lastname: Täuber
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003710:Demography; D004463:Ecology; D008954:Models, Biological; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D013269:Stochastic Processes