Phytoplankton–zooplankton dynamics in the ‘presence’ or ‘absence’ of toxic phytoplankton

Chaudhuri, S., Roy, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2543-924X and Chattopadhyay, J. (2013) Phytoplankton–zooplankton dynamics in the ‘presence’ or ‘absence’ of toxic phytoplankton. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 225. 102 - 116. ISSN 0096-3003 doi: 10.1016/j.amc.2013.08.082

Abstract/Summary

The inhibitory effects of toxin-producing phytoplankton (TPP) on zooplankton modulate the dynamics of marine plankton. In this article, we employ simple mathematical models to compare theoretically the dynamics of phytoplankton–zooplankton interaction in situations where the TPP are present with those where TPP are absent. We consider two sets of three-component interaction models: one that does not include the effect of TPP and the other that does. The negative effects of TPP on zooplankton is described by a non-linear interaction term. Extensive theoretical analyses of the models have been performed to understand the qualitative behaviour of the model systems around every possible equilibria. The results of local-stability analysis and numerical simulations demonstrate that the two model-systems differ qualitatively with regard to oscillations and stability. The model system that does not include TPP is asymptotically stable around the coexisting equilibria, whereas, the system that includes TPP oscillates for a range of parametric values associated with toxin-inhibition rate and competition coefficients. Our analysis suggests that the qualitative dynamics of the plankton–zooplankton interactions are very likely to alter due to the presence of TPP species, and therefore the effects of TPP should be considered carefully while modelling plankton dynamics.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/36725
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Uncontrolled Keywords	Plankton dynamics; Toxin-producing phytoplankton; Toxin inhibition; Oscillation
Publisher	Elsevier
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