Effect of spatial patterns on population size

We investigate the role of the spatial pattern and temporal dynamics on the population properties of a diffusive Gause–Lotka–Volterra system. The average total population size is insensitive to the temporal dynamics, whereas a significant decrease of the population size can be found as the spatial diffusion effect is increased, implying that the spatial pattern plays an important role. At large diffusion coefficients, a saturation of the spatial pattern variation is observed, which can be understood by a spatial scaling analysis of the system. The existence of multiple attractors can also indicate that spatial patterns play a more important role than temporal dynamics in dominating the population size.