Hopf bifurcations and slow-fast cycles in a model of plankton dynamics

Abstract

The existence of Hopf bifurcations and slow-fast cycles in the dynamics of a model for the interaction between phyto- and zooplankton is considered. A sensible and easily interpretable dimensionless version of the model is presented, followed by a numerical bifurcation analysis in a two dimensional parameter space. The biological meaning of the parameters and qualitative features in phase space are streessed.