Bottom up and top down effect on toxin producing phytoplankton and its consequence on the formation of plankton bloom

We consider a plankton-nutrient interaction model consisting of phytoplankton, zooplankton and dissolved limiting nutrient with general nutrient uptake functions and instantaneous nutrient recycling. In this model, it is assumed that phytoplankton releases toxic chemical for self defense against their predators. The model system is studied analytically and the threshold values for the existence and stability of various steady states are worked out. It is observed that if the maximal zooplankton conversion rate crosses a certain critical value, the system enters into Hopf bifurcation. Finally it is observed that to control the planktonic bloom and to maintain stability around the coexistence equilibrium we have to control the nutrient input rate specially caused by artificial eutrophication. In case if it is not possible to control the nutrient input rate, one could use toxic phytoplankton to prevent the recurrence bloom.     

Spatiotemporal pattern formation in a diffusive predator-prey system: an analytical approach

In this paper, we propose and analyse a mathematical model to study the mathematical aspect of reaction diffusion pattern formation mechanism in a predator-prey system. An attempt is made to provide an analytical explanation for understanding plankton patchiness in a minimal model of aquatic ecosystem consisting of phytoplankton, zooplankton, fish and nutrient. The reaction diffusion model system exhibits spatiotemporal chaos causing plankton patchiness in marine system. Our analytical findings, supported by the results of numerical experiments, suggest that an unstable diffusive system can be made stable by increasing diffusivity constant to a sufficiently large value. It is also observed that the solution of the system converges to its equilibrium faster in the case of two-dimensional diffusion in comparison to the one-dimensional diffusion. The ideas contained in the present paper may provide a better understanding of the pattern formation in marine ecosystem.     

MODELING NUTRIENT (DISSOLVED INORGANIC NITROGEN) AND PLANKTON DYNAMICS AT SAGAR ISLAND OF HOOGHLY–MATLA ESTUARINE SYSTEM,WEST BENGAL,INDIA

Abstract Degradation of litter from mangrove forests adjacent to the creeks at Sagar Island of the Hooghly–Matla estuarine ecosystem is one of the principal sources of nutrient to the estuary. Nutrients augment the growth of phytoplankton, which in turn stimulates the production of zooplankton. Zooplankton serves as major food source for fish population of this estuarine system. Here, a dynamic model with three state variables (nutrient, phytoplankton, and zooplankton) is proposed using nitrogen (mgN/l) as currency. Input of dissolved inorganic nitrogen as nutrient, water temperature, surface solar irradiance, and salinity of upstream and downstream of the estuary, collected from the field, are incorporated as graph time functions in the model. Calibration and validation are performed by using collected data of two consecutive years. Model results indicate that the growth of zooplankton and phytoplankton are enhanced by increase in nutrient input in the system. Zooplankton biomass is affected by decrease in the salinity of the estuary. Sensitivity analysis results at ±10% indicate that maximum growth rate of phytoplankton (P_max) is the most sensitive parameter to the nutrient pool although growth rate of zooplankton (g_z) and half saturation constant for phytoplankton grazing by zooplankton (K_z) are most sensitive parameters to phytoplankton and zooplankton compartments, respectively. The model depicts the present status of plankton dynamics, which serve as major food resource for herbivorous and carnivorous fish species of the estuary. Effect of deforestation is tested in the model. Therefore, from management perspective, this model can be used to predict the impact of mangroves on nutrient and plankton dynamics, which will give complete information of both shell and fin fish productions in the estuary.     

Role of toxin producing phytoplankton on a plankton ecosystem

In this paper, a mathematical model is proposed to study the role of toxin producing phytoplankton on a phytoplankton–zooplankton system with nutrient cycling. The model includes three state variables, viz., nutrient concentration, phytoplankton biomass and zooplankton biomass. It is assumed in the model that phytoplankton biomass is producing toxicant harmful for the zooplankton biomass. All the feasible equilibria of the system are obtained and the conditions for the existence of the interior equilibrium are determined. The local stability analysis of all the feasible equilibria are carried out and the possibility of Hopf-bifurcation of the interior equilibrium is studied. The threshold value in terms of constant input rate of nutrient is determined both analytically and numerically.     

Mathematical modelling on harmful algal blooms in the presence of toxic substances

Effect of toxin producing plankton and its control is an intriguing problem in marine plankton ecology. In this paper we have proposed a three-component model consisting of a non-toxic phytoplankton (NTP), toxin producing phytoplankton (TPP) and zooplankton (Z), where the growth of zooplankton species reduce due to toxic chemicals released by phytoplankton species. It is observed that the three components persist if the predation rate of zooplankton population on toxic phytoplankton is bounded in certain regions. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Chaos in a seasonally and periodically forced phytoplankton–zooplankton system

The effect of seasonality and periodicity on plankton dynamics is investigated. Periodic variations are added to two different parameters of the plankton ecosystem: the growth rate of phytoplankton and the death rate of the zooplankton. The dynamic behaviors of the system is simulated numerically. A variety of complex population dynamics including chaos, quasi-periodicity, and periodic resonance are obtained. Our result reinforces the conjecture that seasonality and periodicity are crucial to plankton dynamics.     

Dynamical study of nutrient-phytoplankton model with toxicity: Effect of diffusion and time delay

A harmful algal bloom is one of the significant concerns of marine biodiversity. The control of such algal bloom is required for the conservation of marine ecology. The proposed work discusses a model for interacting nutrient phytoplankton systems with the effect of toxic chemicals released by phytoplankton and time delay in toxin liberation. Our main aim is to provide a great insight into the impact of toxins and time delay on the dynamics of nutrient-phytoplankton. We investigate the stability of system dynamics, and the condition for the existence of Turing instability is obtained. The role of time delay is also investigated for the proposed system. The numerical simulation shows that toxin release rate, the diffusion coefficient of nutrients, and time delay significantly impact system dynamics. We observe that increasing values of toxin release results in the system dynamics show stable and oscillatory behavior without diffusion. The spatial and spatio-temporal patterns show that the higher value of the rate of toxin release lead to periodic and standing waves. Finally, we observe that the time delay in toxin distribution term stabilizes and destabilizes the system dynamics.     

Plankton growth dynamic driven by plankton body size in deterministic and stochastic environments

In this paper, we establish a new phytoplankton–zooplankton model by considering the effects of plankton body size and stochastic environmental fluctuations. Mathematical theory work mainly gives the existence of boundary and positive equilibria and shows their local as well as global stability in the deterministic model. Additionally, we explore the dynamics of V-geometric ergodicity, stochastic ultimate boundedness, stochastic permanence, persistence in the mean, stochastic extinction, and the existence of a unique ergodic stationary distribution in the corresponding stochastic version. Numerical simulation work mainly reveals that plankton body size can generate great influences on the interactions between phytoplankton and zooplankton, which in turn proves the effectiveness of mathematical theory analysis. It is worth emphasizing that for the small value of phytoplankton cell size, the increase of zooplankton body size can not change the phytoplankton density or zooplankton density; for the middle value of phytoplankton cell size, the increase of zooplankton body size can decrease zooplankton density or phytoplankton density; for the large value of phytoplankton cell size, the increase of zooplankton body size can increase zooplankton density but decrease phytoplankton density. Besides, it should be noted that the increase of zooplankton body size cannot affect the effect of random environmental disturbance, while the increase of phytoplankton cell size can weaken its effect. There results may enrich the dynamics of phytoplankton-zooplankton models.     

Dynamical transition for S‐K‐T biological competing model with cross‐diffusion

The main objective of this paper is to study the dynamical transition for the S‐K‐T biological competition system with cross‐diffusion. Based on the spectral analysis, the principle of exchange of stabilities conditions for eigenvalues are obtained. By using the dynamical transition theory, 2 different types of dynamical transition for the S‐K‐T model are also derived. In addition, an example is given to illustrate our main results.     

A delay model for viral infection in toxin producing phytoplankton and zooplankton system

An eco-epidemiological delay model is proposed and analysed for virally infected, toxin producing phytoplankton (TPP) and zooplankton system. It is shown that time delay can destabilize the otherwise stable non-zero equilibrium state. The coexistence of all species is possible through periodic solutions due to Hopf bifurcation. In the absence of infection the delay model may have a complex dynamical behavior which can be controlled by infection. Numerical simulation suggests that the proposed model displays a wide range of dynamical behaviors. Different parameters are identified that are responsible for chaos.     

Analysis of a nutrient-phytoplankton model in the presence of viral infection

In this paper, a system of reaction-diffusion equations arising in a nutrient-phytoplankton populations is investigated. The equations model a situation in which phytoplankton population is divided into two groups, namely susceptible phytoplankton and infected phytoplankton. A number of existence and non-existence results about the non-constant steady states of a reaction diffusion system are given. If the diffusion coefficient of the infected phytoplankton is treated as bifurcation parameter, non-constant positive steady-state solutions may bifurcate from the constant steady-state solution under some conditions.     

一类水域生物动力系统的定性分析

对由水域中浮游生物和为其提供营养的生物之间相互作用构成的动力系统进行了研究,得到了该系统在R2+内有唯一渐近稳定的平衡点且无周期轨道,做出了该系统轨线的全局结构,给出了所得结论的生物意义.     

Impact of noise in a phytoplankton-zooplankton system

In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of a delayed toxic phytoplankton-two zooplankton system incorporating the effects of Levy noise and white noise. The value of this study lies in two aspects: Mathematically, we first prove the existence of a unique global positive solution of the system, and then we investigate the sufficient conditions that guarantee the stochastic extinction and persistence in the mean of each population. Ecologically, via numerical simulations, we find that the effect of white noise or Levy noise on the stochastic extinction and persistence of phytoplankton and zooplankton are similar, but the synergistic effects of the two noises on the stochastic extinction and persistence of these plankton are stronger than that of single noise. In addition, an increase in the toxin liberation rate or the intraspecific competition rate of zooplankton was found to be capable to increase the biomass of the phytoplankton but decrease the biomass of zooplankton. These results may help us to better understand the phytoplankton-zooplankton dynamics in the fluctuating environments.     

A simple mathematical model for seasonal planktonic blooms

We show how the inclusion of the defense strategy by different species can alter the prediction of simple models. One of the defense strategy by the phytoplankton population against their grazer is the release of toxic chemicals. In turn the zooplankton population reduces there predation rate over toxin producing phytoplankton (TPP) to protect themselves from those toxic chemicals. Thus, when the level of toxicity is high, the grazing pressure is low and when the level of toxicity is low or when the toxin is absent, the grazing pressure is high. Here we have considered a TPP–zooplankton system where the rate of toxin liberation and the predation rate vary with zooplankton abundance. We observe that our proposed model has the potential to show different dynamical behaviour that are similar to that seen in real‐world situations. Further, we consider three different functional forms for the distribution of the toxins and compare them using latin hypercube sampling technique and found that the functional forms seem to have no effect in determining the final outcome of the system. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamical analysis of toxin producing Phytoplankton–Zooplankton interactions

In the present paper we consider a toxin producing phytoplankton–zooplankton model in which the toxin liberation by phytoplankton species follows a discrete time variation. Firstly we consider the elementary dynamical properties of the toxic-phytoplankton–zooplankton interacting model system in absence of time delay. Then we establish the existence of local Hopf-bifurcation as the time delay crosses a threshold value and also prove the existence of stability switching phenomena. Explicit results are derived for stability and direction of the bifurcating periodic orbit by using normal form theory and center manifold arguments. Global existence of periodic orbits is also established by using a global Hopf-bifurcation theorem. Finally, the basic outcomes are mentioned along with numerical results to provide some support to the analytical findings.     

System dynamics of euthrophication processes in lakes

Eutrophication is the phenomenon observed in the bodies of water that receive large influxes of nutrients due to agricultural runoff or urban waste disposal. It is characterized by blooms of either green or blue-green algae (often noxious smelling) and by a drastic reduction in dissolved oxygen and often makes it impossible for many species of fish and zooplankton to live in the water. The objective was to examine the effects of eutrophication on plankton seasonal dynamics. Simulation models have been used primary tool in the study of eutrophication in lakes. Many eutrophication models have been developed both to predict the effect of nutrient additions on lake biota and to examine how effective various nutrient diversions alternatives might be improved water quality. Systems dynamics was studied using the model, which is expressed as a series of four differential equations as its state variables for the rates of change of phytoplankton, zooplankton, nitrogen and phosphorus. Influence of the phosphorus concentration on eutrophication was treated and studied as the one of the most important process in the lake ecosystem.     

Simulation of a nonlinear stochastic ecology model

A nonlinear ecological system model is formulated as a stochastic process. The formulation traces a chemical nutrient as it undergoes random exchanges between the phytoplankton, the zooplankton, and the euphotic zone of an aquatic ecosystem. The Chapman-Kolmogorov equations are derived, and simulation techniques are used to study both single realizations and the statistical parameters which govern the system.     

Nutrient-phytoplankton-zooplankton models with a toxin

Models of nutrient-plankton interaction with a toxic substance that inhibits either the growth rate of phytoplankton, zooplankton or both trophic levels are proposed and studied. For simplicity, it is assumed that both nutrient and the toxin have the same constant input and washout rate as the chemostat system. The effects of the toxin upon the existence, magnitude, and stability of the steady states are examined. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the system can have multiple attractors when the phytoplankton’s nutrient uptake rate is inhibited by the toxin.     

一个特殊的三维捕食链非自治扩散系统的持续生存

对一个特殊的三种群非自治捕食链扩散系统进行讨论.其特殊之处在于扩散现象发生在构成捕食链的中间种群间.通过利用比较原理进行微分不等式的比较,得到了该系统持续生存的条件;分析了扩散运动对该系统种群动力学行为的影响.