NONLINEAR PLANKTON DYNAMICS AND PATTERN-FORMATION IN AN ECOHYDRODYNAMIC MODEL SYSTEM

Nonlinear interactions, diffusion, transport and locomotion of species are described by a system of reaction-diffusion-advection equations. Its transient and stationary nonequilibrium solutions in space and tim e are considered as patchy patterns in natural chemical or biological communities. Recent results on the general mechanism of spatial patter n formation after flux-induced instabilities of a spatially uniform sp ecies distribution as well as on the effect of hydrodynamic forcing on spatial patterns in a minimal plankton model are summarized.