title: Excitability of an age-structured plankton ecosystem.
abstract: We adapt a simple two-component model of a plankton ecosystem to account for the life spans of individual predatory organisms. We investigate the system's short-term dynamics, in particular its excitability, and its long-term dynamics, and show how both can be highly sensitive to initial conditions. We discover that this effect is enhanced by imposing age structure on the system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Clother
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brindley
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000818:Animals; D001723:Birth Rate; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017753:Ecosystem; D008954:Models, Biological; D009026:Mortality; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000254:growth & development*; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D015048:Zooplankton / Q000254:growth & development*