Spatiotemporal patterns provoked by environmental variability in a predator-prey model.
The emergence of spatiotemporal patterns in the distribution of species is one of the most striking phenomena in ecology and nonlinear science. Since it is known that spatial inhomogeneities can significantly affect the dynamics of ecological populations, in the present paper we investigate the impact of environmental variability on the formation of patterns in a spatially extended predator-prey model. In particular, we utilize a predator-prey system with a Holling III functional response and introduce random spatial variations of the kinetic parameter signifying the intrinsic growth rate of the prey, reflecting the impact of a heterogeneous environment. Our results reveal that in the proximity of the Hopf bifurcation environmental variability is able to provoke pattern formation, whereby the coherence of the patterns exhibits a resonance-like dependence on the variability strength. Furthermore, we show that the phenomenon can only be observed if the spatial heterogeneities exhibit large enough regions with high growth rates of the prey. Our findings thus indicate that variability could be an essential pattern formation mechanism of the populations.
Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, Koroška cesta 160, SI-2000 Maribor, Slovenia.
Maja
M
Fras
Marko
M
Gosak
D003198:Computer Simulation; D004777:Environment; D020387:Food Chain; D048788:Growth and Development / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D013045:Species Specificity
Diversity-induced resonance; Environmental variability; Predator–prey; Spatiotemporal pattern