How Spatial Heterogeneity Affects Transient Behavior in Reaction-Diffusion Systems for Ecological Interactions?

How Spatial Heterogeneity Affects Transient Behavior in Reaction-Diffusion Systems for Ecological Interactions? Bull Math Biol. 2019 Aug 23;: Authors: Wang X, Efendiev M, Lutscher F Abstract Most studies of ecological interactions study asymptotic behavior, such as steady states and limit cycles. The transient behavior, i.e., qualitative aspects of solutions as and before they approach their asymptotic state, may differ significantly from asymptotic behavior. Understanding transient dynamics is crucial to predicting ecosystem responses to perturbations on short timescales. Several quantities have been proposed to measure transient dynamics in systems of ordinary differential equations. Here, we generalize these measures to reaction-diffusion systems in a rigorous way and prove various relations between the non-spatial and spatial effects, as well as an upper bound for transients. This extension of existing theory is crucial for studying how spatially heterogeneous perturbations and the movement of biological species involved affect transient behaviors. We illustrate several such effects with numerical simulations. PMID: 31444675 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Bulletin of Mathematical Biology - Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Tags: Bull Math Biol Source Type: research