Multi-species Functional Responses

2021 ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
John P. DeLong

In this chapter, I extend the standard functional response model to communities in which predators are foraging on more than one kind of prey. This is an essential component of real foraging scenarios that is not yet widely represented in the functional response literature but is crucial to understanding food webs generally. Here I develop the multi-species functional response and describe it using my particular perspective on how we understand these functions in general. I review the importance of considering multiple prey types and the limited empirical work estimating multi-species functional responses.

Author(s):  
John P. DeLong

Predator-prey interactions form an essential part of ecological communities, determining the flow of energy from autotrophs to top predators. The rate of predation is a key regulator of that energy flow, and that rate is determined by the functional response. Functional responses themselves are emergent ecological phenomena – they reflect morphology, behavior, and physiology of both predator and prey and are both outcomes of evolution and the source of additional evolution. The functional response is thus a concept that connects many aspects of biology from behavioral ecology to eco-evolutionary dynamics to food webs, and as a result, the functional response is the key to an integrative science of predatory ecology. In this book, I provide a synthesis of research on functional responses, starting with the basics. I then break the functional response down into foraging components and connect these to the traits and behaviors that connect species in food webs. I conclude that contrary to appearances, we know very little about functional responses, and additional work is necessary for us to understand how environmental change and management will impact ecological systems


2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (11) ◽  
pp. 2215-2226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy E Essington ◽  
Sture Hansson

Predator-dependent functional responses decouple predation mortality from fluctuations in predator abundance and therefore can prevent strong "top-down" interaction strengths in food webs. We evaluated whether contrasts in the functional response of Baltic Sea cod (Gadus morhua) were consistent with the contrasting population dynamics of two prey species, herring (Clupea harengus) and sprat (Sprattus sprattus): sprat abundance increased nearly threefold following a sharp decline in the cod population (a strong interaction), whereas herring abundance failed to increase (a weak interaction). We found striking differences in the functional response of cod on alternative prey, and these were consistent with the observed patterns in interaction strengths. Cod predation was the dominant source of mortality for age-1 and age-2 sprat but was only important for age-1 herring. Moreover, the magnitude of predation mortality on age-1 and age-2 sprat was highly sensitive to cod biomass, whereas predation mortality on herring was only moderately sensitive to cod biomass. These analyses suggest the possibility that food webs are comprised of linkages that vary with respect to the magnitude and importance of predation mortality and how this mortality varies with changes in predator abundance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 101-111
Author(s):  
John P. DeLong

In this chapter I review the many ways that functional responses may show a sigmoidal shape rather than the simpler asymptotic shape. I break down the potential for prey dependence of the space clearance rate through effects on each of the component mechanisms. Given the emergent nature of the functional response, type III curves can arise through density dependence of the probability of successful capture, prey detectability, and predator–prey encounter rates. Given the variety of mechanisms, it may be possible that there are really multiple types of type III curve. I also raise some concerns with the standard type III model and offer an alternative model that gets around these problems.


2021 ◽  
pp. 115-132
Author(s):  
John P. DeLong

In this chapter I cover some key issues in fitting functional response models to data and determining the values of parameters. Because some of these issues have been covered elsewhere, here I focus on the nature of foraging trial data and why noise, stochasticity, and individual variation pose particular challenges for understanding functional responses. I examine several data sets to illustrate methods of determining differences in functional response parameters and types. I also show through simulations that individual variation in functional response parameters may account for the noisiness of foraging data and also lead to underestimates of both space clearance rate and handling time in curve-fitting approaches.


2021 ◽  
pp. 133-144
Author(s):  
John P. DeLong

Being recognized for more than 70 years and estimated thousands of times, with numerous analyses of compilations, it would seem there is a lot we should know about functional responses. Indeed, we know some of the ways in which functional responses vary, how foraging mechanisms combine to determine, to at least some extent, functional response parameters, and how functional responses influence community interactions from biocontrol impacts to invasive predators to food webs. I suggest, however, that there remains a considerable amount that we do not know, in particular for field-based functional responses, multi-species functional responses, individual variation, behavioral mechanisms, and the impact and evolution of underlying traits. I suggest these areas should be high priorities for future work on functional responses.


Author(s):  
Kakali Bhattacharya

De/colonial methodologies and ontoepistemologies have gained popularity in the academic discourses emerging from Global North perspectives over the last decade. However, such perspectives often erase the broader global agenda of de/colonizing research, praxis, and activism that could be initiated and engaged with beyond the issue of land repatriation, as that is not the only agenda in de/colonial initiatives. In this chapter, I coin a framework, Par/Des(i), with six tenets, and offer three actionable methodological turns grounded in transnational de/colonial ontoepistemologies. I locate, situate, and trace the Par/Des(i) framework within the South Asian diasporic discourses and lived realities as evidenced from my empirical work with transnational South Asian women, my community, and my colleagues. Therefore, I offer possibilities of being, knowing, and enacting de/colonizing methodologies in our work, when engaging with the Par/Des(i) framework, with an invitation for an expanded conversation.


Author(s):  
June Price Tangney

Although humility is commonly equated with a sense of unworthiness and low self-regard, true humility is a rich, multifaceted construct that is characterized by an accurate assessment of one's characteristics, an ability to acknowledge limitations, and a “forgetting of the self.” In this chapter, I describe current conceptions of humility, discuss the challenges in its measurement, and review the scant empirical work addressing it directly and indirectly. I will also discuss briefly interventions for enhancing humility.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasir Islam ◽  
Farhan Mahmood Shah ◽  
Xu Rubing ◽  
Muhammad Razaq ◽  
Miao Yabo ◽  
...  

AbstractIn the current study, we investigated the functional response of Harmonia axyridis adults and larvae foraging on Acyrthosiphon pisum nymphs at temperatures between 15 and 35 °C. Logistic regression and Roger’s random predator models were employed to determine the type and parameters of the functional response. Harmonia axyridis larvae and adults exhibited Type II functional responses to A. pisum, and warming increased both the predation activity and host aphid control mortality. Female and 4th instar H. axyridis consumed the most aphids. For fourth instar larvae and female H. axyridis adults, the successful attack rates were 0.23 ± 0.014 h−1 and 0.25 ± 0.015 h−1; the handling times were 0.13 ± 0.005 h and 0.16 ± 0.004 h; and the estimated maximum predation rates were 181.28 ± 14.54 and 153.85 ± 4.06, respectively. These findings accentuate the high performance of 4th instar and female H. axyridis and the role of temperature in their efficiency. Further, we discussed such temperature-driven shifts in predation and prey mortality concerning prey-predator foraging interactions towards biological control.


Parasitology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 137 (6) ◽  
pp. 1027-1038 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDY FENTON ◽  
SARAH E. PERKINS

SUMMARYPredator-prey models are often applied to the interactions between host immunity and parasite growth. A key component of these models is the immune system's functional response, the relationship between immune activity and parasite load. Typically, models assume a simple, linear functional response. However, based on the mechanistic interactions between parasites and immunity we argue that alternative forms are more likely, resulting in very different predictions, ranging from parasite exclusion to chronic infection. By extending this framework to consider multiple infections we show that combinations of parasites eliciting different functional responses greatly affect community stability. Indeed, some parasites may stabilize other species that would be unstable if infecting alone. Therefore hosts' immune systems may have adapted to tolerate certain parasites, rather than clear them and risk erratic parasite dynamics. We urge for more detailed empirical information relating immune activity to parasite load to enable better predictions of the dynamic consequences of immune-mediated interspecific interactions within parasite communities.


2001 ◽  
Vol 58 (10) ◽  
pp. 1909-1923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Outi Heikinheimo

During the past 20 years, there have been prolonged vendace (Coregonus albula) recessions in several Finnish lakes. Hypotheses have been proposed that predation by brown trout (Salmo trutta m. lacustris) or perch (Perca fluviatilis) on young-of-the-year vendace could prevent the recovery of the vendace stocks from a low-density state. In this study, dynamic modelling was applied to examine the effect of predation, assuming a dome-shaped spawning stock–recruitment relationship for vendace, type II or III functional responses to predation by brown trout and perch, and a constant rate of fishing. The results showed that the form of the functional response is crucial in determining the significance of the predation on vendace stocks that have a steep dome-shaped stock–recruitment relationship. In all cases, however, predation by perch had more effect than that by brown trout, probably due to perch occupying the pelagic zone when the vendace stock is sparse. This may make the mortality of vendace increase with decreasing population density (depensatory mortality) at certain density levels.


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