DRAMA - a cybernetic approach for Plankton Digital Twins

A flexible platform for the description of plankton functional types is described, that uses a combination of systems biology concepts enacted through the system dynamics modelling of cybernetic (feedback) interactions. Sigmoidal-shaped (allosteric-like) response curves are used to modulate multi-stress interactions controlling growth supported by consumption of different resources. The conceptual framework, dynamic resource acquisition modulated activity (DRAMA), provides for a homeostatic description of physiology and behaviour in which cascades of (de)repression processes related to resource availability and satiation are used to control activity and growth of the organism being modelled. The approach is particularly appropriate for digital twin applications because of the ease with which a single structure can be modified and developed to better conform with subtleties between real organisms thus enhancing the ability to simulate the ecophysiology of members of each different group.