Spatiotemporal dynamics in a spatial plankton system

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the complex spatiotemporal patterns in a spatial plankton-fish system with Holling type III responses, revealing conditions for pattern formation and the emergence of various dynamic structures including spiral waves.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analytical and numerical study of pattern formation and instability conditions in a spatial plankton-fish model with diffusion.

Findings

Pattern sequences include spots, stripes, and wave patterns.

Diffusive instability conditions are identified.

Spiral waves are observed in the system.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the complex dynamics of a spatial plankton-fish system with Holling type III functional responses. We have carried out the analytical study for both one and two dimensional system in details and found out a condition for diffusive instability of a locally stable equilibrium. Furthermore, we present a theoretical analysis of processes of pattern formation that involves organism distribution and their interaction of spatially distributed population with local diffusion. The results of numerical simulations reveal that, on increasing the value of the fish predation rates, the sequences spots $\rightarrow$ spot-stripe mixtures$\rightarrow$ stripes$\rightarrow$ hole-stripe mixtures holes$\rightarrow$ wave pattern is observed. Our study shows that the spatially extended model system has not only more complex dynamic patterns in the space, but also has spiral waves.