Endogenous spatial pattern formation from two intersecting ecological mechanisms: the dynamic coexistence of two noxious invasive ant species in Puerto Rico.

ABSTRACT: Endogenous (or autonomous, or emergent) spatial pattern formation is a subject transcending a variety of sciences. In ecology, there is growing interest in how spatial patterns can 'emerge' from internal system processes and simultaneously affect those very processes. A classic situation emerges when a predator's focus on a dominant competitor releases competitive pressure on a subdominant competitor, allowing coexistence of the two. If this idea is formulated spatially, two interesting consequences immediately arise. First, a spatial predator/prey system may take the form of a Turing instability, in which an activator (the dispersing prey population) is contained by a repressor (the more rapidly dispersing predator population) generating a spatial pattern of clusters of prey and predators

SUBMITTER: Vandermeer J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7657856 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature