Spatial dispersal of species

This work has unearthed interesting new phenomena which have been proposed as explanations for many long-standing ecological problems involving spatial movement and heterogeneity of species.

Abstract

With few exceptions, spatial heterogeneity in ecological models has been largely ignored until relatively recently. The current upsurge in interest is partly due to cross-fertilization with other disciplines, particularly mathematics. Models of species interaction in which the species disperse by diffusion are mathematically similar to those that arise in chemical reaction-diffusion systems which have been proposed as a basis for morphogenesis. Reaction/species interaction-diffusion systems have been increasingly studied mathematically in the last 15 years; this work has unearthed interesting new phenomena which have been proposed as explanations for many long-standing ecological problems involving spatial movement and heterogeneity of species. This is a very brief introduction to some of the basic results and how they impinge on ecology.