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The dynamics of various gaseous substances is of great importance in the vital activity of phytoplankton. The dynamics of oxygen and carbon dioxide are the most indicative for aquatic plant communities. These dynamics are important for the global ratio of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. The goal of the work is to use the mathematical modeling to study the role of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the life of aquatic plant organisms, in particular, the phytoplankton. The series of mathematical models of the dynamics of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the phytoplankton body are proposed. The series of models are built according to the increasing degree of complexity and the number of modeled processes. At first, the simplest model of only gas dynamics is considered, then there is a transition to models with the interaction and mutual influence of gases on the formation and dynamics of energy-intensive substances and on growth processes in the plant organism. Photosynthesis and respiration are considered as the basis of the models. The models study the properties of solutions: equilibrium solutions and their stability, dynamic properties of solutions. Various types of equilibrium stability, possible complex non-linear dynamics have been identified. These properties allow better orientation when choosing a model to describe processes with a known set of data and formulated modeling goals. An example of comparing an experiment with its model description is given. The next goal of modeling — to link gas dynamics for oxygen and carbon dioxide with metabolic processes in plant organisms. In the future, model designs will be applied to the analysis of ecosystem behavior when the habitat changes, including the content of gaseous substances.

Photosynthetic apparatus of a plant cell consists of multiple photosynthetic electron transport chains (ETC). Each ETC is capable of capturing and utilizing light quanta, that drive electron transport along the chain. Light assimilation efficiency depends on the plant’s current physiological state. The energy of the part of quanta that cannot be utilized, dissipates into heat, or is emitted as fluorescence. Under high light conditions fluorescence levels gradually rise to the maximum level. The curve describing that rise is called fluorescence rise (FR). It has a complex shape and that shape changes depending on the photosynthetic apparatus state. This gives one the opportunity to investigate that state only using the non invasive measuring of the FR.

When measuring fluorescence in experimental conditions, we get a response from millions of photosynthetic units at a time. In order to reproduce the probabilistic nature of the processes in a photosynthetic ETC, we created a Monte Carlo model of this chain. This model describes an ETC as a sequence of electron carriers in a thylakoid membrane, connected with each other. Those carriers have certain probabilities of capturing light photons, transferring excited states, or reducing each other, depending on the current ETC state. The events that take place in each of the model photosynthetic ETCs are registered, accumulated and used to create fluorescence rise and electron carrier redox states accumulation kinetics. This paper describes the model structure, the principles of its operation and the relations between certain model parameters and the resulting kinetic curves shape. Model curves include photosystem II reaction center fluorescence rise and photosystem I reaction center redox state change kinetics under different conditions.