Planktonic System Research Articles

Light-induced extracellular electron transport by the marine raphidophyte Chattonella marina.

There is increasing interest in extracellular electron transfer (EET) from organisms to receptors, particularly in anaerobic biofilms at mineral surfaces. Less attention has been given to EET by planktonic organisms in oxic environments where extracellular electron generation and transport might be expected to be of limited consequence. In this study, the EET activity of the photosynthetic marine raphidophyte, Chattonella marina, was examined using a mediatorless photosynthetic microbial fuel cell with results showing positive light response. Electron output by organisms present in cell suspension was substantially higher than those present in biofilms at the electrode surface. Indeed, current generation under light illumination of the C. marina suspension continued even when contact between the organisms and the electrodes was prevented by dialysis membrane, suggesting that soluble electron carriers secreted by C. marina were facilitating the EET process. Cyclic voltammetry measurements of the cell-free exudate showed redox peaks in the range of 0.1-0.5 V (vs Ag/AgCl), confirming that redox active species were present in the cell suspension. Facilitation of electron transfer from the planktonic organism to the anode by endogenous redox-active exudates appears to be critical to current generation. The ability of these exudates to remain in their reduced state in the presence of oxygen is possibly a function of the spin-restricted nature of oxygen-mediated exudate oxidation. Quantification of the EET processes operating in this planktonic system assists in understanding the means and extent to which C. marina induces redox transformations in the external medium with these transformations presumably of benefit to the survival of this organism, potentially including facilitation of iron uptake and induction of toxicity to other organisms.

Stochastic Bifurcation in the Plankton System under the Fish School

Stochastic Bifurcation in the Plankton System under the Fish School

Stochastic Bifurcations in the Plankton-fish System

Since each creature interacts with each other through a food chain, an analysis of the food chain is a crucial problem in an ecosystem. In this paper, we consider the plankton-fish system consisting of fish, zooplankton and phytoplankton, and study the influence of the random noise on the stability of the plankton system under fish school by numerical simulations. The qualitative change of the solutions of differential equations by variation of a system parameter is generally called a bifurcation. This paper is concerned with the bifurcation analysis of a stochastic plankton-fish system. As major analytical methods for the stochastic bifurcation, the D-bifurcation (Dynamical bifurcation) and the P-bifurcation (Phenomenological bifurcation) approaches are cited. The D-bifurcation considers the stability of invariant measures, while the P-bifurcation is characterized with a qualitative change of the stationary probability distribution, e.g., a transition from unimodal to bimodal distribution. By the numerical simulations, we show that not the D-bifurcation but the P-bifurcation occurs in the stochastic plankton-fish system considered here.

Stochastic Bifurcations and Noise-Induced Chaos in a Dynamic Prey–Predator Plankton System

We consider the stochastic Truscott–Brindley dynamical model of the interacting populations of prey and predator. We study a new phenomenon of the stochastic cycle splitting. In a zone of Canard cycles, using the stochastic sensitivity function technique, we find a critical value of the parameter corresponding to the supersensitive cycle. In the neighborhood of this critical value, a comparative parametrical analysis of the phenomenon of the stochastic cycle splitting is performed. It is shown that the bifurcation of the stochastic cycle splitting is accompanied by the noise-induced chaotization.

Dynamics in a diffusive plankton system with delay and toxic substances effect

The dynamics of a reaction–diffusion plankton system with delay and toxic substances effect is considered. Existence and priori bound of a solution for a model without delay are shown. Global asymptotic stability of the axial equilibrium is obtained. The stability of the positive equilibrium and the existence of Hopf bifurcation are investigated by analyzing the distribution of eigenvalues. And the properties of Hopf bifurcation are determined by the normal form theory and the center manifold reduction for partial functional differential equations. Some numerical simulations are carried out for illustrating the theoretical results.

Modeling and analysis of a marine plankton system with nutrient recycling and diffusion

This article describes a nutrient‐phytoplankton‐zooplankton system with nutrient recycling in the presence of toxicity. We have studied the dynamical behavior of the system with delayed nutrient recycling in the first part of the article. Uniform persistent of the system is examined. In the second part of the article, we have incorporated diffusion of the plankton population to the system and dynamical behavior of the system is analyzed with instantaneous nutrient recycling. The condition of the diffusion driven instability is obtained. The conditions for the occurrence of Hopf and Turing bifurcation critical line in a spatial domain are derived. Variation of the system with small periodicity of diffusive coefficient has been studied. Stability condition of the plankton system subject to the periodic diffusion coefficient of the zooplankton is derived. It is observed that nutrient‐phytoplankton‐zooplankton interactions are very complex and situation specific. Moreover, we have obtained different exciting results, ranging from stable situation to cyclic oscillatory behavior may occur under different favorable conditions, which may give some insights for predictive management. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 229–241, 2015

A Paleoecological History of the Late Precolonial and Postcolonial Mesohaline Chesapeake Bay Food Web

Geochemical (total nitrogen, total organic carbon, total phosphorus, total sulfur, and carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes) and selected biotic (diatom, foraminifera, polychaete) indicators preserved in two estuarine sediment cores from the mesohaline Chesapeake Bay provide a history of alterations in the food web associated with land-use change. One core from the mouth of the Chester River (CR) (collected in 2000) represents a 1,000-year record. The second core (collected in 1999), from the Chesapeake Bay’s main stem opposite the Choptank River (MD), represents a 500-year record. As European settlers converted a primarily forested landscape to agriculture, sedimentation rates increased, water clarity decreased, salinity decreased in some areas, and the estuarine food web changed into a predominantly planktonic system. Representatives of the benthic macrofaunal community (foraminifera and the polychaetes Nereis spp.) were affected by local changes before there were widespread landscape alterations. Nitrogen stable isotope records indicated that land-use changes affected nitrogen cycling beginning in the early 1700s. Extreme changes were evident in the mid-nineteenth century following widespread deforestation and since the mid-twentieth century reflecting heightened eutrophication as development increased in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Results also demonstrate how paleoecological records vary due to the degree of terrestrial inputs of freshwater runoff and nutrients at core locations within the Chesapeake Bay.

Hopf-transcritical bifurcation in toxic phytoplankton–zooplankton model with delay

In this paper, a phytoplankton–zooplankton model with toxic liberation delay is considered. Firstly, the critical values of Hopf bifurcation, transcritical bifurcation and Hopf-transcritical bifurcation are given, and to give more detailed information about the periodic oscillations, the direction and stability of Hopf bifurcation is studied by using the normal-form theory and center manifold theorem. Then, we give the detailed bifurcation set by calculating the universal unfoldings near the Hopf-transcritical bifurcation point. Finally, we show that the plankton system may exhibit quasi-periodic oscillations, which are verified both theoretically and numerically, and explain the experimental observed fluctuation phenomenon of plankton population.

Parallel changes in genital morphology delineate cryptic diversification of planktonic nudibranchs

The relative roles of geographical and non-geographical barriers in the genesis of genetic isolation are highly debated in evolutionary biology, yet knowing how speciation occurs is essential to our understanding of biodiversity. In the open ocean, differentiating between the two is particularly difficult, because of the high levels of gene flow found in pelagic communities. Here, we use molecular phylogenetics to test the hypothesis that geography is the primary isolating mechanism in a clade of pelagic nudibranchs, Glaucinae. Our results contradict allopatric expectations: the cosmopolitan Glaucus atlanticus is panmictic, whereas the Indo-Pacific Glaucus marginatus contains two pairs of cryptic species with overlapping distributions. Within the G. marginatus species complex, a parallel reproductive change has occurred in each cryptic species pair: the loss of a bursa copulatrix. Available G. marginatus data are most consistent with non-geographical speciation events, but we cannot rule out the possibility of allopatric speciation, followed by iterative range extension and secondary overlap. Irrespective of ancestral range distributions, our results implicate a central role for reproductive character differentiation in glaucinin speciation-a novel result in a planktonic system.

Delay-driven irregular spatiotemporal patterns in a plankton system

An inhomogeneous distribution of species density over physical space is a widely observed scenario in plankton systems. Understanding the mechanisms resulting in these spatial patterns is a central topic in plankton ecology. In this paper we explore the impact of time delay on spatiotemporal patterns in a prey-predator plankton system. We find that time delay can trigger the emergence of irregular spatial patterns via a Hopf bifurcation. Moreover, a phase transition from a regular spiral pattern to an irregular one was observed and the latter gradually replaced the former and persisted indefinitely. The characteristic length of the emergent spatial pattern is consistent with the scale of plankton patterns observed in field studies.

Microbial ecological characteristics in the Red Tide-Monitoring area of Bohai Bay

The abundance of bacterioplankton and benthic bacteria and their ecological characteristics in the Red Tide-Monitoring area of Bohai Bay was studied during five cruises from May to October in 2006 and May in 2011. A hydrodynamic-ecosystem model, coupled planktonic system and benthic system, was used to quantitatively study the effect of bacterioplankton and benthic bacteria on other ecological variables. The survey and simulation results showed that a) the abundance of bacterioplankton and benthic bacteria was 5.64 × 108 to 1.03 × 1010 cells/L and 7.2 × 107 to 6.89 × 108 cells/g, respectively. Bacterioplanktonic abundance had a significant correlation with Chl-a and dissolved oxygen (DO); however, benthic bacterial abundance was not notably correlated with other environmental factors. The distribution characteristics of bacterioplankton in May 2011 were similar to those in May 2006, but the average and highest values were lower in 2011 than 2006. b) The main factors (determined by principal component analysis) that influence the growth of bacterioplankton were external organic pollution, phosphate concentration and the phytoplankton biomass. c) The average contribution rate from benthic bacteria to ammonia of the planktonic system was 41.4%, and the average contribution rates from phytoplankton, bacterioplankton, and detritus to zooplankton were 87.3%, 1.4% and 11.3%, respectively.

Multitrophic Interactions in the Sea: Assessing the Effect of Infochemical-Mediated Foraging in a 1-d Spatial Model

The release of chemicals following herbivore grazing on primary producers may provide feeding cues to carnivorous predators, thereby promoting multitrophic interactions. In particular, chemicals released following grazing on phytoplankton by microzooplankton herbivores have been shown to elicit a behavioural foraging response in carnivorous copepods, which may use this chemical information as a mechanism to locate and remain within biologically productive patches of the ocean. In this paper, we use a 1D spatial reaction-diffusion model to simulate a tri-trophic planktonic system in the water column, where predation at the top trophic level (copepods) is affected by infochemicals released by the primary producers forming the bottom trophic level. The effect of the infochemical-mediated predation is investigated by comparing the case where copepods forage randomly to the case where copepods adjust their vertical position to follow the distribution of grazing-induced chemicals. Results indicate that utilization of infochemicals for foraging provides fitness benefits to copepods and stabilizes the system at high nutrient load, whilst also forming a possible mechanism for phytoplankton bloom formation. We also investigate how the copepod efficiency to respond to infochemicals affects the results, and show that small increases (2%) in the ability of copepods to sense infochemicals can promote their persistence in the system. Finally we argue that effectively employing infochemicals for foraging can be an evolutionarily stable strategy for copepods.

Community interactions dampen acidification effects in a coastal plankton system

Changing seawater chemistry towards reduced pH as a result of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is affecting oceanic organisms, particularly calcifying species. Responses of non-calcifying consumers are highly variable and mainly mediated through indirect ocean acidification effects induced by changing the biochemical content of their prey, as shown within single species and simple 2-trophic level systems. However, it can be expected that indirect CO2 impacts observed at the single species level are compensated at the ecosystem level by species richness and complex trophic interactions. A dampening of CO2-effects can be further expected for coastal communities adapted to strong natural fluctuations in pCO2, typical for productive coastal habitats. Here we show that a plankton community of the Kiel Fjord was tolerant to CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) levels projected for the end of this century (<1400 µatm), and only subtle differences were observed at the extremely high value of 4000 µatm. We found similar phyto- and microzooplankton biomass and copepod abundance and egg production across all CO2 treatment levels. Stoichiometric phytoplankton food quality was minimally different at the highest pCO2 treatment, but was far from being potentially limiting for copepods. These results are in contrast to studies that include only a single species, which observe strong indirect CO2 effects for herbivores and suggest limitations of biological responses at the level of organism to community. Although this coastal plankton community was highly tolerant to high fluctuations in pCO2, increase in hypoxia and CO2 uptake by the ocean can aggravate acidification and may lead to pH changes outside the range presently experienced by coastal organisms.

Ecosystem responses in the southern Caribbean Sea to global climate change

Over the last few decades, rising greenhouse gas emissions have promoted poleward expansion of the large-scale atmospheric Hadley circulation that dominates the Tropics, thereby affecting behavior of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Expression of these changes in tropical marine ecosystems is poorly understood because of sparse observational datasets. We link contemporary ecological changes in the southern Caribbean Sea to global climate change indices. Monthly observations from the CARIACO Ocean Time-Series between 1996 and 2010 document significant decadal scale trends, including a net sea surface temperature (SST) rise of ∼1.0 ± 0.14 °C (±SE), intensified stratification, reduced delivery of upwelled nutrients to surface waters, and diminished phytoplankton bloom intensities evident as overall declines in chlorophyll a concentrations (ΔChla = -2.8 ± 0.5%⋅y(-1)) and net primary production (ΔNPP = -1.5 ± 0.3%⋅y(-1)). Additionally, phytoplankton taxon dominance shifted from diatoms, dinoflagellates, and coccolithophorids to smaller taxa after 2004, whereas mesozooplankton biomass increased and commercial landings of planktivorous sardines collapsed. Collectively, our results reveal an ecological state change in this planktonic system. The weakening trend in Trade Winds (-1.9 ± 0.3%⋅y(-1)) and dependent local variables are largely explained by trends in two climatic indices, namely the northward migration of the Azores High pressure center (descending branch of Hadley cell) by 1.12 ± 0.42°N latitude and the northeasterly progression of the ITCZ Atlantic centroid (ascending branch of Hadley cell), the March position of which shifted by about 800 km between 1996 and 2009.

Исследование свойств пространственно однородной математической модели четырехкомпонентной планктонной системы

Исследование свойств пространственно однородной математической модели четырехкомпонентной планктонной системы

Addressing the impact of environmental uncertainty in plankton model calibration with a dedicated software system: the Marine Model Optimization Testbed (MarMOT 1.1 alpha)

Abstract. A wide variety of different plankton system models have been coupled with ocean circulation models, with the aim of understanding and predicting aspects of environmental change. However, an ability to make reliable inferences about real-world processes from the model behaviour demands a quantitative understanding of model error that remains elusive. Assessment of coupled model output is inhibited by relatively limited observing system coverage of biogeochemical components. Any direct assessment of the plankton model is further inhibited by uncertainty in the physical state. Furthermore, comparative evaluation of plankton models on the basis of their design is inhibited by the sensitivity of their dynamics to many adjustable parameters. Parameter uncertainty has been widely addressed by calibrating models at data-rich ocean sites. However, relatively little attention has been given to quantifying uncertainty in the physical fields required by the plankton models at these sites, and tendencies in the biogeochemical properties due to the effects of horizontal processes are often neglected. Here we use model twin experiments, in which synthetic data are assimilated to estimate a system's known "true" parameters, to investigate the impact of error in a plankton model's environmental input data. The experiments are supported by a new software tool, the Marine Model Optimization Testbed, designed for rigorous analysis of plankton models in a multi-site 1-D framework. Simulated errors are derived from statistical characterizations of the mixed layer depth, the horizontal flux divergence tendencies of the biogeochemical tracers and the initial state. Plausible patterns of uncertainty in these data are shown to produce strong temporal and spatial variability in the expected simulation error variance over an annual cycle, indicating variation in the significance attributable to individual model-data differences. An inverse scheme using ensemble-based estimates of the simulation error variance to allow for this environment error performs well compared with weighting schemes used in previous calibration studies, giving improved estimates of the known parameters. The efficacy of the new scheme in real-world applications will depend on the quality of statistical characterizations of the input data. Practical approaches towards developing reliable characterizations are discussed.

Dynamics of a marine plankton system: Diffusive instability and pattern formation

The paper deals with the study of the stability behavior of a marine prey–predator (phytoplankton–zooplankton) system. The interaction of the phytoplankton with zooplankton is taken as the Ivlev type functional response. The stability behaviors of the reaction–diffusion system arising from the zooplankton–phytoplankton model are carried out. We have studied the reaction–diffusion equation with both constant and variable (periodic) diffusion coefficients. For constant diffusion we have analyzed the effect of diffusion for diffusive instability of the system. The temporal variation of the system with small periodicity of diffusive coefficient have been studied by using Hill’s equation. We have carried out the numerical simulation to support and supplement the analytical results.

Transient dynamics and the destabilizing effects of prey heterogeneity

The presence of prey heterogeneity and weakly interacting prey species is frequently viewed as a stabilizer of predator-prey dynamics, countering the destabilizing effects of enrichment and reducing the amplitude of population cycles. However, prior model explorations have largely focused on long-term, dynamic attractors rather than transient dynamics. Recent theoretical work shows that the presence of prey that are defended from predation can have strongly divergent effects on dynamics depending on time scale: prey heterogeneity can counteract the destabilizing effects of enrichment on predator-prey dynamics at long time scales but strongly destabilize systems during transient phases by creating long periods of low predator/prey abundance and increasing extinction probability (an effect that is amplified with increasing enrichment). We tested these general predictions using a planktonic system composed of a zooplankton predator and multiple algal prey. We first parameterized a model of our system to generate predictions and tested these experimentally. Our results qualitatively supported several model predictions. During transient phases, presence of defended algal prey increased predator extinctions at low and high enrichment levels compared to systems with only a single edible prey. This destabilizing effect was moderated at higher dilution rates, as predicted by our model. When examining dynamics beyond initial oscillations, presence of the defended prey increased predator-prey temporal variability at high nutrient enrichment but had no effect at low nutrient levels. Our results highlight the importance of considering transient dynamics when assessing the role of stabilizing factors on the dynamics of food webs.

Visual motion with pink noise induces predation behaviour

Visual motion cues are one of the most important factors for eliciting animal behaviour, including predator-prey interactions in aquatic environments. To understand the elements of motion that cause such selective predation behaviour, we used a virtual plankton system where the predation behaviour in response to computer-generated prey was analysed. First, we performed motion analysis of zooplankton (Daphnia magna) to extract mathematical functions for biologically relevant motions of prey. Next, virtual prey models were programmed on a computer and presented to medaka (Oryzias latipes), which served as predatory fish. Medaka exhibited predation behaviour against several characteristic virtual plankton movements, particularly against a swimming pattern that could be characterised as pink noise motion. Analysing prey-predator interactions via pink noise motion will be an interesting research field in the future.

Stochastic sensitivity analysis of noise-induced excitement in a prey–predator plankton system

In this paper, the excitable Truscott–Brindley dynamical model of the interacting populations under environmental noise is considered. We study a probabilistic mechanism of the noise-induced outbreaks in a zone of stable deterministic equilibria. The stochastic sensitivity functions technique and method of confidence ellipses are applied for the description of the spatial arrangement of random states near the deterministic attractor. The effectiveness of our method for the constructive analysis of the stochastic excitement in Truscott–Brindley model is demonstrated. A critical value for the intensity of noise-generating noise-induced outbreaks is estimated.