Dynamic modeling of lytic virus transmission among phytoplankton driven by nitrogen and phosphorus

Abstract

Lytic viruses infect phytoplankton and cause their mass mortalities. A dynamic model is proposed to explore lytic virus transmission among phytoplankton. The ecological reproductive index for the survival ability of phytoplankton and the basic reproduction number for the spreading ability of lytic viruses are established by analyzing dynamical properties of the model. We estimate parameter values of the model from Maat and Brussaard’s experimental data and theoretically examine Maat and Brussaard’s hypotheses that lytic virus transmission is driven by nitrogen and phosphorus. Our studies show that lytic viruses cannot spread among phytoplankton in low nitrogen or low phosphorus aquatic environments. The numerical diagrams also suggest that the increase in nitrogen and phosphorus during the spread of lytic viruses does not always cause phytoplankton blooms.