In rivers and streams, biofilms are thin layers of greenish-brown slime attached to rocks, plants, and other surfaces. Biofilms play key roles in primary production and cycling of nutrients, water quality remediation, suspended sediment removal, and energy flow to higher trophic levels. In the present study, we developed a two-dimensional cellular automata model to simulate mixed biofilms of toxin-sensitive and toxin-producing species in hydrodynamic flow. The flow was generated by a stochastic process for uniform flow and by using the Navier-Stokes equation for non-uniform flow. Minimized local rules governing reproduction and mortality of the species were executed in the self-organizing processes to elucidate interactions between toxin-producing and toxin-sensitive species in competition over nutrients. We briefly discuss the morphology of the simulated biofilm under different flow conditions.
In rivers and streams, biofilms are thin layers of greenish-brown slime attached to rocks, plants, and other surfaces. Biofilms play key roles in primary production and cycling of nutrients, water quality remediation, suspended sediment removal, and energy flow to higher trophic levels. In the present study, we developed a two-dimensional cellular automata model to simulate mixed biofilms of toxin-sensitive and toxin-producing species in hydrodynamic flow. The flow was generated by a stochastic process for uniform flow and by using the Navier-Stokes equation for non-uniform flow. Minimized local rules governing reproduction and mortality of the species were executed in the self-organizing processes to elucidate interactions between toxin-producing and toxin-sensitive species in competition over nutrients. We briefly discuss the morphology of the simulated biofilm under different flow conditions.