Analysis of a lagoon ecological model with anoxic crises and impulsive harvesting

We analyze mathematically a system of impulsive nonlinear parabolic equations that model a shallow lagoon subject to anoxic crises and two types of impulsive harvesting. The main focus is on the existence and properties of periodic solutions. In particular we give conditions that ensure the existence of such solutions and examine the effect of harvesting on the occurrence of anoxic crises. Our approach is based on estimates of the principal eigenvalue of associated linear problems, and on results from Nonlinear Functional Analysis. In particular, we obtain explicit criteria that involve the integrals of coefficients rather than maxima and minima. This is significant due to the large seasonal variations in the coefficient values. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.