Destabilization, stabilization, and multiple attractors in saturated mixotrophic environments

Abstract

The ability of mixotrophs to combine phototrophy and phagotrophy is now well recognized and found to have important implications for ecosystem dynamics. In this paper we examine the dynamical consequences of the invasion of mixotrophs in a model that is a limiting case of the chemostat. The model is a hybrid of a competition model describing the competition between populations of autotroph and mixotroph for limiting resources, and a predator-prey type model