As early as around 1925, Lotka and Volterra proposed a mathematical model to describe the population evolution of snow rabbits (prey) and lynx (predators), known as the Lotka-Volterra model [
1]. Since then, researchers have conducted in-depth research and improvement on the model based on real-life backgrounds [
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12]. What interests us is that in 2012, Nagano and Maeda introduced diffusion terms into the classical Rosenzweig-MacArthur model and analyzed the reaction-diffusion Rosenzweig-MacArthur model [
3,
13]. They provided a phase diagram of the model and studied its lattice formation, revealing the existence of various spatiotemporal patterns, including well-known spiral and lattice patterns. In 2014, Zhang et al. pointed out that the model did not have the possibility of generating Turing pattern based on this, so they attempted to consider more complex inducing factors such as hyperbolic mortality [
4] or delay [
14]. They also displayed many beautiful spatial patterns, including hexagonal spot patterns, stripe patterns, micro spirals patterns, and target patterns. Liu and his colleagues have long been engaged in the study of the Allee effect on population model dynamics [
5,
6,
7,
8,
11,
12]. Therefore, in 2019, they attempted to introduce the predator-prey model with hyperbolic mortality proposed by Zhang et al. into the Allee effect. The study found that the Allee effect would increase the independence of pattern, in other words, it would make the spatial distribution of the population more concentrated, which is beneficial for the continuation of the population [
7]. In 2010, the Turing pattern on large-scale random networks was first studied by Nakao and Mikhailov, and their findings demonstrated that early linear instability caused network nodes to naturally separate into wealthy and poor groups. In the following nonlinear stage, the freshly forming Turing pattern undergoes yet another significant reshaping. Several steady-state coexistence and hysteresis effects were observed [
2]. Inspired by this, the work on Turing pattern diagrams on complex networks has been widely carried out, and these works can be subdivided into others from the perspective of theory and application background. In theory, it mainly focuses on the development of different types of network pattern formation theory and pattern dynamics [
15,
16,
17,
18,
19,
20,
21,
22,
23,
24,
25]. In application, it mainly focuses on different research backgrounds, such as infectious disease models, population models, and rumor propagation models [
26,
27,
28,
29,
30,
31,
32,
33,
34,
35,
36,
37,
38,
39,
40,
41,
42,
43,
44,
45,
46,
47,
48,
49]. Here, we choose the population model as the research background. In particular, we will describe in detail the work related to Turing pattern based on predator-prey models in complex networks. In 2012, Fernandes and collaborators generalized the work of Nakao and Mikhailov to food web models, and their results highlighted that differences in abundance distribution among patches could be dynamically generated through a self-organized Turing pattern [
26]. Subsequently, in 2019 and 2021, Chang et al. considered the small delay and large delay factors in the Leslie-Gower model, respectively. The aim was to explore the evolution of rich spatiotemporal patterns caused by delay and further confirmed the impact of delay on Turing pattern [
27,
32]. Meanwhile, Liu et al. tested the Leslie-Gower model in LA4 (
lattices with average degrees
) network, LA12 network (
lattices with average degrees
), LA23 network (
lattices with average degrees
), ER random network [
50] and BA (Barabási-Albert) scale-free network [
51] in 2020, respectively. And found that the average degree of the network plays an important role in the pattern formation [
31]. Influenced by the above works, Ye and Zhou constructed a predator-prey model with Allee effect and hyperbolic mortality on ER random network, and discovered the existence of the spatiotemporal pattern affected by the initial value [
52]. Their model expression is as follows
The biological significance of each parameter and variable in model (
1) is shown in
Table 1 and [
3,
4,
7,
52].
The above work is mostly based on single-layer networks. We note that generating Turing pattern on multiplex networks does not seem to require significant differences in diffusion rates between two populations, which was first mentioned in [
17]. Therefore, compared to single-layer networks, multiplex networks are more general. Soon after, in 2020, Gao et al. attempted to consider cross-diffusion mechanisms on multiplex networks and found many complex heterogeneous spatial patterns that had not yet been discovered in single-layer networks [
28]. They applied it to the predator-prey model in 2023 and also discovered these complex heterogeneous spatial patterns, which effectively confirmed their early findings [
48]. To our knowledge, most of the research on patterns in multiplex networks currently focuses on Turing pattern, while other types of spatiotemporal patterns are rarely mentioned. Therefore, this article takes the predator-prey model with Allee effect and hyperbolic mortality as an example to explore the possibility of spatial patterns on multiplex networks. Therefore, model (
1) is rewritten as follows
The reaction term here can be expressed as
We divide the population on the multiplex ER random networks into two categories: prey population
and predator population
. The schematic diagram is shown in
Figure 1. The prey population
and predator population
occupy every node in layers
and
, respectively. There is an interactive relationship between two populations across the layers through the imaginary lines which means the reaction term
and
. Meanwhile, species on the network will also flow in or out of this node on their own layer through the solid lines which means the diffusion term
and
.
Figure 1.
Reaction-diffusion prey-predator model locates in a multiplex ER random network, which shows the prey population (green nodes) and predator population (orange nodes) occupy every node on layer and layer, respectively. Among them, the imaginary lines represent the reaction term, and the solid lines represent the diffusion term.
Here, the total number of nodes in the network is
N, and its topology is defined as a symmetric adjacency matrix whose elements satisfy
if the node
i and
j are connected where
and
, otherwise
. We set the degree of node
i as shown by
. In addition, we sort network nodes index
i in decreasing order of their degrees
. The aim is to ensure that
is established [
2,
17]. The sum of the incoming fluxes from other connecting nodes index
j to node index
i provides the diffusion of species
u and
v at the node index
i. Fick’s law states that the flux is inversely proportional to the difference in node concentrations. So, the network Laplacian matrix
is considered and
illustrates the Kronecker product, the diffusive flux of the predator population
v to the node index
i is written as
and the diffusive flux of the prey population
u to the node index
i as
. The biological significance of other parameters is shown in
Table 1.
The main structure of this paper can be organized as follows. In
Section 2, by utilizing the Turing instability theory on multiplex networks, the threshold conditions for Turing bifurcation were calculated. In
Section 3, numerical experiments are carried out on Turing pattern in single-layer networks and multiplex networks, respectively. In
Section 4, numerical experiments are carried out on spatiotemporal patterns in single-layer networks and multiplex networks, respectively. In
Section 5, a brief conclusion is given.