MICROBIAL PREDATION IN COUPLED CHEMOSTATS - A GLOBAL STUDY OF 2 COUPLED NONLINEAR OSCILLATORS

Publication Year
1994

Type

Journal Article
Abstract
Predator-prey systems in continuously operated chemostats exhibit sustained oscillations over a wide range of operating conditions. When two such chemostats interact through flow exchange, the interplay of the oscillation frequencies gives rise to a wealth of dynamic behavior patterns. Using numerical bifurcation techniques, we perform a detailed computational study of these patterns and the transitions between them as the coupling strength and relative frequencies of the two chemostats vary. We concentrate on certain strong resonance phenomena between the two frequencies as well as their mutual extinction and provide a representative sampling of possible phase portraits for our model system. Our observations corroborate recent mathematical results and case studies of coupled nonlinear chemical oscillators in which regions of mutual extinction as well as the Arnol'd structure for two-parameter families of maps of the plane have been observed. We highlight certain unexpected features of the operating diagram discovered through our computational study and discuss their implication for the dynamic response of the chemostat system.
Journal
Mathematical BiosciencesMathematical Biosciences
Volume
122
Issue
1
Pages
25-66
Date Published
07/1994
ISBN
0025-5564
Short Title
Math. Biosci.