Modeling of the functioning of soil ecosystems:
In ecology, one of the important challenges is the understanding of the biodiversity observed in the natural ecosystems. Several models have been proposed to explain this biodiversity, and in particular the coexistence of different species. In these models, it is often assumed that, when they die, the micro-organisms are directly converted in an assimilable resource, that is a resource that alive organisms can consume. However, we know that it is not the case in reality. Indeed, the organic matter stemmed from the dead organisms has to be transformed in assimilable resource before it can be consumed. This transformation is performed by some micro-organisms which have this special ability.
We have proposed a new model of soil ecosystems, of chemostat type. This model is rather simple, but also original because it takes into account several mechanisms:
- the growth, the mortality and the respiration,
- the ability of some organisms to transform the non assimilable resources in assimilable ones,
- the advantage that an organism can gain from this ability of transformation.
For the moment, we have considered the case where only one or two types of organisms are present. The model is finally composed of 3 (or 4) nonlinear ordinary differential equations: one per type of organisms, one for the assimilable resource and one for the non assimilable one. The study of the equilibrium points has first shown the possibility of coexistence, at equilibrium, of the two organisms. Then, in numerical simulations, we have observed the possible existence of limit cycles, which can also explain the coexistence of organisms observed in the nature.