Instability of a Uniform Plankton Distribution

[摘要] For a plankton model system, a horizontally uniform distribution becomes unstable if the zooplankton component carries out diurnal vertical migrations in an ocean with a speed difference between the currents in upper and lower waterlaycrs. With turbulent diffusion included in the model, the instability occurs beyond a threshold speed difference. A numerical estimation of the threshold and of the critical patch size gives reasonable values.

[关键词] Modelling;phytoplankton;zooplankton;patchiness;spatial distribution;stability;turbulent diffusion