title: Patchy agglomeration as a transition from monospecies to recurrent plankton blooms.
abstract: We propose a model for explaining both red tides and recurring phytoplankton blooms. Three assumptions are made, namely the presence of toxin producing phytoplankton, the satiation phenomenon in zooplankton's feeding, modelled by a Holling type II response, and phytoplankton aggregation leading to formation of patches. The dynamics of the plankton population is shown to depend on the fraction of the phytoplankton population that aggregates to form colonies and on the number of the latter.
authors.affiliation: Agricultural and Ecological Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B.T. Road, Kolkata 700108, India. joydev@isical.ac.in
authors.forename: Joydev
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chattopadhyay
authors.forename: Samrat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.forename: Ezio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Venturino
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005068:Eutrophication / Q000502:physiology*; D008387:Marine Toxins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008954:Models, Biological; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D011157:Population Dynamics; D015048:Zooplankton / Q000254:growth & development
chemical_list: D008387:Marine Toxins