Chaos in a seasonally and periodically forced phytoplankton–zooplankton system

The effect of seasonality and periodicity on plankton dynamics is investigated. Periodic variations are added to two different parameters of the plankton ecosystem: the growth rate of phytoplankton and the death rate of the zooplankton. The dynamic behaviors of the system is simulated numerically. A variety of complex population dynamics including chaos, quasi-periodicity, and periodic resonance are obtained. Our result reinforces the conjecture that seasonality and periodicity are crucial to plankton dynamics.