title: Modelling spatial oscillations in soil borehole bacteria.
abstract: Spatial oscillations in groundwater contaminant concentrations can be successfully explained by consideration of a competitive microbial community in conditions of poor nutrient supply, in which the effects of spatial diffusion of the nutrient sources are included. In previous work we showed that the microbial competition itself allowed oscillations to occur, and, in common with other reaction-diffusion systems, the addition of spatial diffusion transforms these temporal oscillations into travelling waves, sometimes chaotic. We therefore suggest that irregular chemical profiles sometimes found in contaminant plume borehole profiles may be a consequence of this competition.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Electronic address: Mark.McGuinness@vuw.ac.nz.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: McGuinness
authors.affiliation: MACSI, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Cribbin
authors.affiliation: MACSI, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
authors.forename: H F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Winstanley
authors.affiliation: MACSI, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland; OCIAM, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Fowler
mesh_terms: D005285:Fermentation; D060587:Groundwater / Q000737:chemistry*; D052836:Heterotrophic Processes; D056265:Microbial Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D062206:Spatial Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Groundwater contamination; Microbial competition; Spatial diffusion; Travelling waves