title: Effects of spatial structure and diffusion on the performances of the chemostat.
abstract: Given hydric capacity and nutrient flow of a chemostat-like system, we analyse the influence of a spatial structure on the output concentrations at steady-state. Three configurations are compared: perfectly-mixed, serial and parallel with diffusion rate. We show the existence of a threshold on the input concentration of nutrient for which the benefits of the serial and parallel configurations over the perfectly-mixed one are reversed. In addition, we show that the dependency of the output concentrations on the diffusion rate can be non-monotonic, and give precise conditions for the diffusion effect to be advantageous. The study encompasses dead-zone models.
authors.affiliation: UMR INRA/SupAgro MISTEA and EPI INRA/INRIA MODEMIC, 2 pl. Viala, Montpellier, France. ihabhaidar@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Ihab
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Haidar
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rapaport
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gérard
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development*; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004058:Diffusion; D017753:Ecosystem; D008954:Models, Biological