Turing patterns and apparent competition in predator-prey food webs on networks

Abstract

Reaction-diffusion systems may lead to the formation of steady state heterogeneous spatial patterns, known as Turing patterns. Their mathematical formulation is important for the study of pattern formation in general and play central roles in many fields of biology, such as ecology and morphogenesis. In the present study we focus on the role of Turing patterns in describing the abundance distribution of predator and prey species distributed in patches in a scale free network structure. We extend the original model proposed by Nakao and Mikhailov by considering food chains with several interacting pairs of preys and predators. We identify patterns of species distribution displaying high degrees of apparent competition driven by Turing instabilities. Our results provide further indication that differences in abundance distribution among patches may be, at least in part, due to self organized Turing patterns, and not necessarily to intrinsic environmental heterogeneity.