Engineering Commons^™

Modeling Vertical Migration Of Cyanobacteria And Zooplankton, Corina Christina Mae Overman

Dissertations and Theses

Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, often cause harmful algal blooms and release toxic substances that can harm humans and other animals. Accurately modeling these phytoplankton is a step towards predicting, preventing, and controlling such blooms. Cyanobacteria and zooplankton species are known to migrate vertically in the water column on a daily cycle. Capturing this behavior is one aspect of correctly modeling their dynamics. Here, several models of cyanobacteria vertical movement were tested in proof-of-concept models before being applied to data from field studies. These models included both continuum and particle-tracking frameworks. Four continuum-framework models of cyanobacteria vertical migration were …