Population dynamics in compressible flows

TL;DR

This paper explores how fluid turbulence influences the growth, migration, and competition of organisms in liquid environments, combining theoretical and computational approaches to understand population dynamics in compressible flows.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of recent work on population dynamics in compressible turbulence, including both continuum and particle-based models, with implications for oceanic ecosystems.

Findings

Compressible turbulence significantly affects population distribution and competition.

Static and turbulent velocity fields lead to different population behaviors.

Discrete particle models reveal insights into species fixation and competition.

Abstract

Organisms often grow, migrate and compete in liquid environments, as well as on solid surfaces. However, relatively little is known about what happens when competing species are mixed and compressed by fluid turbulence. In these lectures we review our recent work on population dynamics and population genetics in compressible velocity fields of one and two dimensions. We discuss why compressible turbulence is relevant for population dynamics in the ocean and we consider cases both where the velocity field is turbulent and when it is static. Furthermore, we investigate populations in terms of a continuos density field and when the populations are treated via discrete particles. In the last case we focus on the competition and fixation of one species compared to another