Dynamics of a chemostat in which one microbial population feeds on another.

Under certain simplifying hypotheses, a chemostat in which one microbial population feeds on another can be described by a system of three ordinary differential equations. A study is conducted to find which features of the equations are the most important to the dynamics of the system; it is found that the main influence comes from the from the particular form of the specific growth rate of the feeding population. Some conditions are derived that relate the form of the specific growth rate of the feeding population to the dynamic behaviour of the system.