| Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, Vol. 11, Iss. 2, Apr, 2007, pp. 185-196 @2007 Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences Confinement of Dynamical Chaos Expansion in Rotifer Populations Inhabiting Heterogeneous Environments: An Effect of Attractor Size Invariance Abstract: We study the impact of inter-habitat interactions in rotifer populations
with intrinsically different types of dynamics: chaotic and regular.
For this purpose we use a modified version of the Consensus model. The
Consensus model has been shown to be realistic enough to reproduce
distinguishing features of the rotifer species dynamics. Being uncoupled,
a habitat with chaotic dynamics and habitats with regular oscillations of
the rotifer density do not affect each other. Migration of the rotifers between
the habitats leads to the invasion of chaos into neighboring habitats, that is
chaotic rotifer oscillations replace regular oscillations of the rotifer density
in neighboring habitats. The invasion of chaos distorts spatial borders of the
rotifer oscillations synchronization clusters. We show that the invasion of chaos
is spatially confined. Invariance of the attractor size under transformation of
regular oscillations into chaotic ones is demonstrated to be responsible for the
chaos confinement. Keywords: dynamical chaos, rotifer populations, heterogeneous environment |