ABSTRACT
Spatial distributions of ecological species are usually distinctly heterogeneous, but the main processes underlying these heterogeneities, as well as scenarios of ecological pattern formation, are often rather poorly understood. A conceptual model treating ecological patterns as the diffusion-induced “dissipative structures” in a system of interacting ecological species, such as a predator and its prey, was considered in the previous chapter. This approach, however, was shown to have severe limitations and, apart from a few specific cases, pattern formation due to a Turing-type diffusive instability can hardly be regarded as a common scenario.
