Stochastic population dynamics in turbulent fields

The behavior of interacting populations typically displays irregular temporal and spatial patterns that are difficult to reconcile with an underlying deterministic dynamics. A classical example is the heterogeneous distribution of plankton communities, which has been observed to be patchy over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Here, we use plankton communities as prototype systems to present theoretical approaches for the analysis of the combined effects of turbulent advection and stochastic growth in the spatiotemporal dynamics of the population. Incorporation of these two factors into mathematical models brings an extra level of realism to the description and leads to better agreement with experimental data than that of previously proposed models based on reaction-diffusion equations.