Title:
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Effect of environmental fluctuations on invasion fronts
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Author:
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Mendez, Vicenç; Llopis Fuste, Isaac; Campos, Daniel; Horsthemke, Werner
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Other authors:
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Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament de Física i Enginyeria Nuclear; Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. SC-SIMBIO - Sistemes complexos. Simulació discreta de materials i de sistemes biològics |
Abstract:
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We determine the density profile and velocity of invasion fronts in one-dimensional infinite habitats in the presence of environmental fluctuations. The population dynamics is reformulated in terms of a stochastic reaction–diffusion equation and is reduced to a deterministic equation that incorporates the systematic contributions of the noise. We obtain analytical expressions for the front profile and velocity by constructing a variational principle. The effect of the noise differs, depending on whether it affects the density-independent growth rate, the intraspecific competition term or the Allee threshold. Fluctuations in the density-independent growth rate increase the invasion velocity and the population density of the invaded area. Fluctuations in the competition term also change the population density of the invaded area, but modify the invasion velocity only for certain initial conditions. Fluctuations in the Allee threshold can induce pulled or pushed invasion fronts as well as invasion failure. We compare our analytical results with numerical solutions of the stochastic partial differential equations and show that our procedure proves useful in dealing with reaction–diffusion equations with multiplicative noise. |
Abstract:
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Peer Reviewed |
Subject(s):
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-Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria agroalimentària::Ciències de la terra i de la vida::Biologia -Allee effect -Biological invasions -- Environmental aspects -Efecte Allee -Invasions biològiques |
Rights:
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Document type:
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Article - Published version Article |
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