Extinction and uniform persistence in a microbial food web with mycoloop: limiting behavior of a population model with parasitic fungi

Math Biosci Eng. 2018 Dec 24;16(1):516-537. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2019024.

Abstract

It is recently known that parasites provide a better picture of an ecosystem, gaining attention in theoretical ecology. Parasitic fungi belong to a food chain between zooplankton and inedible phytoplankton, called mycoloop. We consider a chemostat model that incorporates a single mycoloop, and analyze the limiting behavior of solutions, adding to previous work on steady-state analysis. By way of persistence theory, we establish that a given species survives depending on the food web configuration and the nutrient level. Moreover, we conclude that the model predicts coexistence under bounded nutrient levels.

Keywords: chemostat; local and global stability; mycoloop; parasitic fungi; phytoplankton; uniform persistence; zooplankton.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bioreactors
  • Daphnia / physiology*
  • Ecosystem*
  • Food Chain*
  • Fungi / physiology*
  • Models, Biological
  • Parasites
  • Phytoplankton / physiology*
  • Zooplankton / physiology