On mathematical modelling of complex ecosystems Application to marine planktonic patchiness英文精品课件.pdf

Helgol~inderwiss. Meeresunters. 30, 76-82 (1977) On mathematical modelling of complex ecosystems: Application to marine planktonic patchiness D. M. DuBois Universit~ de Liege, Institut de Math~matique; Liege, Belgique ABSTRACT: Mathematical modeling of complex ecosystemsis very difficult due to the very large number of components in the real ecosystem. Conceptual subdivision into interacting sub-systems is necessarily subjective and is made in view of explaining a particular aspect of the reality. In this paper, the North Sea planktonic ecosystem is reduced to a rather simple mathematical model with the purpose of showing the possibility of a spontaneous spatial emergence of plankton patches by diffusive instability. Due to the dependence of diffusion coefficients on the differential diameters of phytoplankton and herbivorous zooplankton patches, respectively, the spatially homogeneous steady state is unstable for spatial pertur- bations with wavelengths belonging to a certain range of values. As a consequence,these per- turbations amplify leading to spatial heterogeneity. INTRODUCTION Mathematical modelling of complex ecosystems is very difficult due to the very large number of components in the real ecosystem. Conceptual subdivision of a real ecosystem into interacting sub-systems is necessarily subjective. Moreover, this sub- division is always made to attempt to explain a particular phenomenon. I will focus attention on the mathematical modelling of the mechanism of patches emergence~occurring in the marine planktonic ecosystem. A recent review on this field has been presented by Levin (1976). References dealing with so