Piero Olla -  ISAC CNR Cagliari #
Activation of phytoplankton blooms by seasonal forcing
and demographic noise. #
Population models, such as those for plankton dynamics,
are often based on a mean-field approximation of individual
behaviors. A weakly stable mean-field configuration, however,
can be destabilized by demographic noise. In certain cases,
such destabilization persists even in the thermodynamic limit.
It is shown how this effect can be exploited, in a simple
predator-prey model, to produce behaviors similar to algal
blooms.