Mathematical Biology Seminar
Damon Toth, University of Washington
Friday March 9, 2007
4:00pm LCB 219 Dynamics of Age-Structured Populations
in a Chemostat
Abstract:
A chemostat is a laboratory apparatus that provides a controlled,
resource-limited environment for microorganisms. Chemostat models are
of
considerable interest to theoretical ecologists because they can
provide
predictions with broad ecological ramifications that are testable in a
laboratory. I will present a single-species chemostat model that
couples a
PDE describing an age-structured population with a system of ODEs
describing a chemostat, and I'll show that limit cycles arise via Hopf
bifurcations in all versions of the model. I'll also present a
periodically forced version of the model that displays strongly
resonant
and chaotic behavior.
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