Planktonic interactions and chaotic advection in Langmuir circulation

The role of unsteady laminar flows for planktonic communities is investigated. Langmuir circulation is used, as a typical medium-scale structure, to illustrate mechanisms for the generation of plankton patches. Two behaviours are evident: chaotic regions that help to spread plankton and locally coherent regions that do not mix with the chaotic regions and which persist for long periods of time. The interaction of populations of phytoplankton with zooplankton is discussed, taking into account the variations in plankton buoyancy.