Viral infection on phytoplankton–zooplankton system—a mathematical model

The present paper deals with the problem of a phytoplankton–zooplankton system in which some of the phytoplankton cells are infected by some viral infection and forming an infected group. The proposed model is similar to the model of Beltrami and Carroll (J. Math. Biol. 32 (1994) 857) and the model of Venturino (Math. Popul. Dyn. Anal. Heterogeneity 1 (1995) 381). The conditions for the coexistence of the populations are presented. The essential mathematical features are analyzed with the help of local stability, global stability and numerical analysis to compare the findings of Beltrami–Carroll and Venturino. Our conclusion is that the role of viral infection in plankton community is very much unpredictable and model dependent.