Chemostat Simulation 2

In this simulation, nutrients (shown in green) flow in from the right hand side. The initial population of grazing animals is 20. The population rises to about 30, and stays at about this level thereafter. Since there are 400 energy units entering the stream each day, and each grazer can be expected to use about 13 units per day, the carrying capacity is 400/13 or about 31 grazers (when they're taking all the nutrients coming in).

The rolling graphic display shows the grazer population (white) and the grass density (green) for the past 300 days. The grazers stop reproducing when starving, and the result is that they produce offsping at different times, and the population peaks seen in Chemostat Simulation 1 are largely removed.