Population dynamics at high Reynolds number

Prasad Perlekar, Roberto Benzi, David R. Nelson, Federico Toschi

Published 2010-06-16, updated 2010-09-03Version 2

We study the statistical properties of population dynamics evolving in a realistic two-dimensional compressible turbulent velocity field. We show that the interplay between turbulent dynamics and population growth and saturation leads to quasi-localization and a remarkable reduction in the carrying capacity. The statistical properties of the population density are investigated and quantified via multifractal scaling analysis. We also investigate numerically the singular limit of negligibly small growth rates and delocalization of population ridges triggered by uniform advection.