Investigation of a nutrient-plankton model with stochastic fluctuation and impulsive control.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate a stochastic nutrient-plankton model with impulsive control of the nutrient concentration and zooplankton population. Analytically, we find that the population size is nonnegative for a sufficiently long time. We derive some sufficient conditions for the existence of stable periodic oscillations, which indicate that the plankton populations will behave periodically. The numerical results show that the plankton system experiences a transition from extinction to the coexistence of species due to the emergence of impulsive control. Additionally, we observe that the nutrient pulse has a stronger relationship with phytoplankton growth than the zooplankton pulse. Although the frequency of impulsive control and appropriate environmental fluctuations can promote the coexistence of plankton populations, an excessive intensity of noise can result in the collapse of the entire ecosystem. Our findings may provide some insights into the relationships among nutrients, phytoplankton and zooplankton in a stochastic environment.