Ecological chaos in the wake of invasion.

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Sherratt, J. A.
  • Lewis, Mark A.
  • Fowler, A. C.

• Irregularities in observed population densities have traditionally been attributed to discretization of the underlying dynamics. We propose an alternative explanation by demonstrating the evolution of spatiotemporal chaos in reaction-diffusion models for predator-prey interactions. The chaos is generated naturally in the wake of invasive waves of predators. We discuss in detail the mechanism by which the chaos is generated. By considering a mathematical caricature of the predator-prey models, we go on to explain the dynamical origin of the irregular behavior and to justify our assertion that the behavior we present is a genuine example of spatiotemporal chaos.

• Date created

  1995-01-01

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Models
  • Population density
  • Mathematical biology

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R37Z12

• License

  © 1995 National Academy of Sciences. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.