Population Extinction on a Random Fitness Seascape

Abstract: Models of population growth and extinction are an increasingly popular subject of study. However, consequences of stochasticity and noise in shaping distributions and outcomes are not sufficiently explored. Here we consider a distributed population with logistic growth at each location, subject to "seascape" noise, wherein the population's fitness randomly varies with {\it location and time}. Despite its simplicity, the model actually incorporates variants of directed percolation, and directed polymers in random media, within a mean-field perspective. Probability distributions of the population can be computed self-consistently; and the extinction transition is shown to exhibit novel critical behavior with exponents dependent on the ratio of the strengths of migration and noise amplitudes. The results are compared and contrasted with the more conventional choice of demographic noise due to stochastic changes in reproduction.