Seminar in PSA 107

ABSTRACT

Title:  Spatio-temporal complexity and chaos of ecological interactions

By:    Bai-Lian (Larry) Li

         Ecological Complexity and Modeling Lab, University of California at Riverside

Abstract: Nonlinear dynamics and chaotic and complex systems constitute some of the most fascinating developments of late twentieth century mathematics and physics. The implications have changed our understanding of important phenomena in almost every field of science, including ecology. This talk will introduce some of our recent work on complexity and chaos in the Spatio-temporal dynamics of marine ecosystems. The dynamics of these biological communities exhibit an interplay between processes acting on a scale from hundreds of meters to kilometers, controlled by biology, and processes acting on a scale from dozens to hundreds of kilometers, dominated by the heterogeneity of hydrophysical fields. We focus on how biological processes affect spatio-temporal pattern formation and explain why the heterogeneity of the species spatial distribution can not always be reduced to the heterogeneity of the aquatic environment.