Diffusion driven instability in reaction-diffusion systems has been proposed as a mechanism for pattern formation in numerous embryological and ecological contexts. However, the possible effects of environmental inhomogeneities has received relatively little attention. We consider a general two species reaction~diffusion model in one space dimension, with one diffusion coefficient a step function of the spatial coordinate. We derive the dispersion relation and the solution of the linearized system. We apply our results to Turing-type models for both embryogenesis and predator-prey interactions. In the former case we derive conditions for pattern to be isolated in one part of the domain, and in the latter we introduce the concept of "environmental instability". Our results suggest that environmental inhomogeneity could be an important regulator of biological pattern formation.

Abstract. The Turing bifurcation is the basic bifurcation generating spatial pattern, and lies at the heart of almost all mathematical models for patterning in biology and chemistry. In this paper the authors determine the structure of this bifurcation for two coupled reaction diffusion equations on a two-dimensional square spatial domain when the diffusion coefficients have a small explicit variation in space across the domain. In the case of homogeneous diffusivities, the Turing bifurcation is highly degenerate. Using a two variable perturbation method, the authors show that the small explicit spatial inhomogeneity splits the bifurcation into two separate primary and two separate secondary bifurcations, with all solution branches distinct. This splitting of the bifurcation is more effective than that given by making the domain slightly rectangular, and shows clearly the structure of the Turing bifurcation and the way in which the various solution branches collapse together as the spatial variation is reduced. The authors determine the stability of the solution branches, which indicates that several new phenomena are introduced by the spatial variation, including stable subcritical striped patterns, and the possibility that stable stripes lose stability supercritically to give stable spotted patterns.

Reaction-diffusion models for biological pattern formation have been studied extensively in a variety of embryonic and ecological contexts. However, despite experimental evidence pointing to the existence of spatial inhomogeneities in various biological systems, most models have only been considered in a spatially homogeneous environment. The authors consider a two-chemical reaction-diffusion mechanism in one space dimension in which one of the diffusion coefficients depends explicitly on the spatial variable. The model is analysed in the case of a step function diffusion coefficient and the insight gained for this special case is used to discuss pattern generation for smoothly varying diffusion coefficients. The results show that spatial inhomogeneity may be an important biological pattern regulator, and possible applications of the model to chondrogenesis in the vertebrate limb are suggested.

Diffusion driven instability in reaction-diffusion systems has been proposed as a mechanism for pattern formation in numerous embryological and ecological contexts. However, the possible effects of environmental inhomogeneities has received relatively little attention. We consider a general two species reaction~diffusion model in one space dimension, with one diffusion coefficient a step function of the spatial coordinate. We derive the dispersion relation and the solution of the linearized system. We apply our results to Turing-type models for both embryogenesis and predator-prey interactions. In the former case we derive conditions for pattern to be isolated in one part of the domain, and in the latter we introduce the concept of "environmental instability". Our results suggest that environmental inhomogeneity could be an important regulator of biological pattern formation.

We consider a reaction diffusion system in one spatial dimension in which the diffusion coefficients are spatially varying. We present a non-standard linear analysis for a certain class of spatially varying diffusion coefficients and show that it accurately predicts the behaviour of the full nonlinear system near bifurcation. We show that the steady state solutions exhibit qualitatively different behaviour to that observed in the usual case with constant diffusion coefficients. Specifically, the modified system can generate patterns with spatially varying amplitude and wavelength. Application to chondrogenesis in the limb is discussed.