Projekt

The aim of this project is to develop a theoretical understanding of the generation and termination of very intense but localized structures in spatially extended excitable systems with applications to two particular extreme events, namely harmful algal blooms in the ocean and epileptic seizures in the human brain. The mechanisms and conditions relevant for the generation and termination of extreme events will be evaluated depending on intrinsic local excitability properties, on spatial coupling properties, and on heterogeneities in space. Besides the usual excitable models a novel type of excitable activator-inhibitor systems is introduced in which several activators are competing with each other. Furthermore time series analysis techniques will allow a robust quantification of complex interactions in such systems even for short data sets. Real data sets are used to verify pathways of generation and termination of extreme states identified through the model.

• Prof. Dr. Ulrike Feudel

  Universität Oldenburg
  Fakultät V - Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften
  Institut für Chemie und
  Biologie des Meeres (ICBM)
  Oldenburg
  

• Prof. Dr. Helmut Hillebrand

  Universität Oldenburg
  Institut für Chemie und Biologie des Meeres
  Arbeitsgruppe Planktologie
  Wilhelmshaven
  

• Dr. Stefanie Moorthi

  Universität Oldenburg
  Fakultät 5: Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften
  Institut für Chemie und Biologie des Meeres
  Planktologie
  Wilhelmshaven
  

• Prof. Dr. Holger Kantz

  Max-Planck-Institut für Physik
  komplexer Systeme
  AG Nichtlineare Dynamik
  und Zeitreihenanalyse
  Dresden
  

• Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kurths

  Potsdam-Institut für
  Klimafolgenforschung e. V.
  Forschungsbereich 4:
  Transdisziplinäre Konzepte und Methoden
  Potsdam
  

• Prof. Dr. Klaus Lehnertz

  Universitätsklinikum Bonn
  Klinik für Epileptologie
  AG Neurophysik
  Bonn