Modeling, Analysis and Simulation: Simulation Techniques for the Population Dynamics of Sinking Phytoplankton in Light-Limited Environments

摘要

Phytoplankton use light for photosynthesis, and the light flux decreases with depth. As a result of this simple light-dependence, reaction-advection-diffusion models describing the dynamics of phytoplankton species contain an integral over depth. That is, models that simulate phytoplankton dynamics in relation to mixing processes generally have the form of an integro-partial differential equation (integro-PDE). Integro-PDEs are computationally more demanding than standard PDEs. Here, the authors outline a reliable and efficient technique for numerical simulation of integro-PDEs.