Anomalous invasion in a 2d model of chemotactic predation

It has been hypothesized that plankton predators sense the presence of their prey through detection of chemical signals exuded by the prey. This process is formulated using elements of existing models, tailored to correspond to the specific process under investigation. The motivation for the resulting model is discussed in detail. Numerical results are then presented. It is found that the front representing the advance of the predator into the prey is irregular in a novel way, and the reasons for this anomalous invasion are discussed. It is recognized that reaction–diffusion models, starting perhaps with Turing, can lead to what might have been thought of as anomalous patterns — yet the “flicker” front advance discovered here is indeed novel.