On a nonlocal reaction-diffusion-advection system modelling the growth of phytoplankton with cell quota structure (Q491900)

This work deals with a model of phytoplankton dynamics formulated as a reaction-diffusion-advection system with respect to the population density of cells with a distribution of their sizes. The vital processes (growth and division) are considered with respect to the light intensity in a water column. The assumed regulations such as the intensity-dependent Monod production rate, the Lambert-Beer depth law, and the restriction on the cells sizes, which allow for dividing, are quite realistic from the biophysical point of view. The rest of the paper is a pure mathematical study formulated in the language of spectral theory. From its biological implications, the most important is the statement that phytoplankton survives if and only if its death rate affected by the cell structure is less than the defined critical death rate.