title: Delay-driven spatial patterns in a plankton allelopathic system.
abstract: Spatial patterns have received considerable attention in the physical, biological, and social sciences. Generally speaking, time delay is a prevailing phenomenon in aquatic environments, since the production of allelopathic substance by competitive species is not instantaneous, but mediated by some time lag required for maturity of species. A natural question is how delay affects the spatial patterns. Here, we consider a delayed plankton allelopathic system consisting of two competitive species and analytically investigate how the time delay affects the stability and spatial patterns. Based upon a stability analysis, we demonstrate that the delay can induce spatial patterns under some conditions. Moreover, by use of a series of numerical simulations performed with a finite difference scheme, we show that the delay plays an important role on pattern selection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Sciences, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng 224003, China. unfoxeses@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Canrong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tian
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D056265:Microbial Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D010933:Plankton / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors