Authors: Kunal Chakraborty Vamsi Manthena
Publish Date: 2015/05/01
Volume: 81, Issue: 4, Pages: 1895-1906
Abstract
This paper examines the spatiotemporal dynamics of a marine ecosystem The system is described by two reaction–diffusion equations We consider a phytoplankton–zooplankton system with Ivlevtype grazing function The dynamics of the reaction–diffusion system of phytoplankton–zooplankton interaction has been studied with both constant and variable diffusion coefficients Periodic oscillations of the phytoplankton and zooplankton populations are shown with constant and variable diffusion coefficients In order to obtain spatiotemporal patterns we perform numerical simulations of the coupled system describing phytoplankton–zooplankton dynamics in the presence of diffusive forces We explain how the concentration of species changes due to local reactions and diffusion Our results suggest that patchiness is one of the basic characteristics of the functioning of an ecological system Twodimensional spatial patterns of phytoplankton–zooplankton dynamics are selforganized and therefore can be considered to provide a theoretical framework to understand patchiness in marine environmentsWe are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading constructive comments and helpful suggestions which have helped us to improve the presentation of this work significantly First author gratefully acknowledges Director INCOIS for his encouragement and unconditional help This is INCOIS contribution number 219 The internship work would have been impossible without Joint Science Academies Summer Fellowship Programme 2013 Second author gladly acknowledges the Joint Science Academies for providing financial support
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