A modified logistic growth equation: Effects of cadmium chloride on the diatom, Thalassiosira weissflogii and the dinoflagellate, Amphidinium carteri in unialgal and bialgal batch cultures

Abstract

A simple modification to the logistic equation is proposed: it extends the description of microbial population growth in batch cultures from the exponential, through the stationary, into the decline phase. The modified equation described the effects of cadmium chloride on a diatom and a dinoflagellate in unialgal and bialgal cultures by specifying changes in four parameters: the specific rate of growth, an asymptotic maximum population density, the specific rate of decline, and a parameter related to the time at which the population density is reduced to one half of its value at stationary phase.