Stochastic nutrient-plankton models (Q6083315)

The authors study a three-dimensional SDE model that describes the dynamics of a zooplankton-phytoplankton-nutrient ecosystem that is subject to nutrient regeneration due to bacterial decomposition of dead plankton and random environmental fluctuations, the latter being modeled via white noise perturbations. It is assumed that nutrient has a constant input rate and its recycling is instantaneous, while the nutrient, phytoplankton and zooplankton washout rates are also constant. One finds two threshold parameters whose signs completely characterize plankton persistence or extinction. First, it is shown that the moments of the process are bounded and the process itself stays in compact sets with a large probability. Then, one defines an integral-algebraic parameter \(\lambda_1\) and observe that if \(\lambda _1<0\), then both the phytoplankton and zooplankton go extinct with probability \(1\). Furthermore, the exact exponential rates of extinction are determined. One can define the invasion rate of the zooplankton, \(\lambda _2\), again as an integral-algebraic quantity and prove that if \(\lambda _1>0\), then the sign of \(\lambda _2\) determines the extinction or persistence of the zooplankton. Due to the lack of dissipativity, one cannot obtain an exponential convergence rate in the case \(\lambda _1>0\) and \(\lambda _2>0\), but rather a polynomial one.