Spatially Synchronous Extinction of Species under External Forcing
Abstract
More than 99% of the species that ever existed on the surface of the Earth are now extinct and their extinction on a global scale has been a puzzle. One may think that a species under an external threat may survive in some isolated locations leading to the revival of the species. Using a general model we show that, under a common external forcing, the species with a quadratic saturation term first undergoes spatial synchronization and then extinction. The effect can be observed even when the external forcing acts only on some locations provided the dynamics contains a synchronizing term. Absence of the quadratic saturation term can help the species to avoid extinction.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- June 2006
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.258102
- arXiv:
- arXiv:nlin/0602041
- Bibcode:
- 2006PhRvL..96y8102A
- Keywords:
-
- 87.23.Cc;
- 05.45.Xt;
- Population dynamics and ecological pattern formation;
- Synchronization;
- coupled oscillators;
- Nonlinear Sciences - Chaotic Dynamics;
- Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 2 figures