A simple plankton model with complex behaviour

Conference item

In this paper we extend the P1P2ZN model, introduced by Cropp and Norbury [5], to investigate the effects of specialist (or discriminate) and generalist (or indiscriminate) grazing (as parameterised by ρ) on a prey-prey-predator model for plankton, in the presence of a limiting nutrient. We also examine the influence of facultative and obligate omnivory on the survival of Z as a generalist predator, as we vary the linear mortality parameter σZ . This leads to bifurcation transition diagrams, which also include steady state stability branches for certain critical points. For specialist grazing (ρ = 0) the bifurcation transition diagram shows steady states, periodic and chaotic dynamics, with very small windows of periodic behaviour, as σZ varies, while for generalist grazing (ρ = 1), we only find periodic or steady state behaviours. The dynamics is interpretable in terms of facultative/obligate omnivory of Z. Results suggest that green ocean plankton code in global climate change modelling might run more stably with generalist grazing terms and careful control of grazer mortality.

Authors: Moroz, I; Norbury, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Chaotic Modeling, Simulation and Applications
• Host title: Proceedings of CHAOS 2015 international conference: the foundations of chaos revisited: from Poincaré to recent advancements
• Journal: Proceedings of CHAOS 2015 international conference: the foundations of chaos revisited: from Poincaré to recent advancements
• Pages: 537-550
• Publication date: 2015-05-26
• Keywords: SBTMR