The effect of adaptive change in the prey on the dynamics of an exploited predator population

2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 758-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A Abrams ◽  
Hiroyuki Matsuda

Mathematical models examine the relationship between harvesting effort and stock size for a predator species when the prey adapts to the risk of predation. In one set of models, the prey can increase its own reproductive rate if it increases its vulnerability to the predator. In the second set of models, each of two prey species has fixed characteristics, but changes in the average characteristics within the prey trophic level occur via shifts in the relative abundance of the two species. In both models, the equilibrium predator population can increase as harvest of that species increases. In the case of two-prey models, the predator's equilibrium population always increases with an increased harvest rate if the two prey coexist and share a single resource. The predator's equilibrium population often decreases from its maximum size to zero over a very small range of harvest rates, once those rates become high enough. Because increased stock size is often used to justify increased harvest rates, this relationship poses a risk that harvest rate will increase to the point where the stock quickly collapses. The results are relevant to understanding changes in the population size of a species experiencing declining environmental conditions.

Author(s):  
Mohd Hafiz Mohd ◽  
Mohd Salmi Md. Noorani ◽  
Mohd Faridzul Fadzly Abdul Kadir ◽  
Noraisah Zakariya

Abstract Refugia have been perceived as a major role in structuring species biodiversity, and understanding the impacts of this force in a community assembly with prey–predator species is a difficult task because refuge process can interact with different ecological components and may show counterintuitive effects. To understand this problem, we used a simple two-species model incorporating a functional response inspired by a Holling type-II equation and a prey refuge mechanism that depends on prey and predator population densities (i.e., density-dependent prey refuge). We then perform the co-dimension one and co-dimension two bifurcation analysis to examine steady states and its stability, together with the bifurcation points as different parameters change. As the capacity of prey refuge is varied, there occur critical values i.e., saddle-node and supercritical Hopf bifurcations. The interaction between these two co-dimension one bifurcations engenders distinct outcomes of ecological system such as coexistence of species, bistability phenomena and oscillatory dynamics. Additionally, we construct a parameter space diagram illustrating the dynamics of species interactions as prey refuge intensity and predation pressure vary; as the two saddle-node move nearer to one another, these bifurcations annihilate tangentially in a co-dimension two cusp bifurcation. We also realised several contrasting observations of refuge process on species biodiversity: for instance, while it is believed that some refuge processes (e.g., constant proportion of prey refuge) would result in exclusion of predator species, our findings show that density-dependent prey refuge is beneficial for both predator and prey species, and consequently, promotes the maintenance of species biodiversity.


1986 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elie Moussalli ◽  
Ray Hilborn

If the life history of a population consists of a sequence of density-dependent stages linked by density-independent survival rates, and if the density-dependent stages take the form of the Beverton–Holt stock and recruitment curve, then a single Beverton–Holt curve will describe the entire life history. The relationship between the parameters of any stage in the life history and the optimal harvest rate and optimal stock size is analyzed. Increasing survival rates will always increase the optimal harvest rate, but may increase or decrease the optimal stock size. Increasing the habitat capacity will increase the optimal stock size and leave the optimal harvest rate unaffected. An example of changing freshwater survival rates by Salmonid Enhancement is shown, as is an example of changing ocean survival rate. As we acquire a better understanding of the determinants of survival and habitat capacity, we should adjust harvest rates and stock size as the environment changes.


Author(s):  
Xavier Lambin

The dependency of mustelid demographic rates on prey abundance has the potential to cause a strong coupling between predator-prey populations. Data on mustelid dynamics show that such strong reciprocal interactions only materialise in some restricted conditions. Bite-size mustelid predators searching for scarce, depleted prey expose themselves to increased risk of predation by larger predators of small mammal that are themselves searching for similar prey species. As voles or muskrats become scarcer, weasels and mink searching for prey over larger areas become increasingly exposed to intra-guild predation, unless they operate in a habitat refuge such as the sub-nivean space. Where larger predators are sufficiently abundant or exert year-round predation pressure on small mustelids, their impact on mustelids may impose biological barrier to dispersal that are sufficient to weaken the coupling between small mustelids and their rodent prey, and thus impose a degree of top down limitation on mustelids.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Hartstone-Rose ◽  
Jonathan M. G. Perry

In a recent study, we quantified the scaling of ingested food size (Vb )—the maximum size at which an animal consistently ingests food whole—and found that Vb scaled isometrically between species of captive strepsirrhines. The current study examines the relationship between Vb and body size within species with a focus on the frugivorous Varecia rubra and the folivorous Propithecus coquereli. We found no overlap in Vb between the species (all V. rubra ingested larger pieces of food relative to those eaten by P. coquereli), and least-squares regression of Vb and three different measures of body mass showed no scaling relationship within each species. We believe that this lack of relationship results from the relatively narrow intraspecific body size variation and seemingly patternless individual variation in Vb within species and take this study as further evidence that general scaling questions are best examined interspecifically rather than intraspecifically.


2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1808) ◽  
pp. 20150520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay J. Falk ◽  
Hannah M. ter Hofstede ◽  
Patricia L. Jones ◽  
Marjorie M. Dixon ◽  
Paul A. Faure ◽  
...  

Many predators and parasites eavesdrop on the communication signals of their prey. Eavesdropping is typically studied as dyadic predator–prey species interactions; yet in nature, most predators target multiple prey species and most prey must evade multiple predator species. The impact of predator communities on prey signal evolution is not well understood. Predators could converge in their preferences for conspicuous signal properties, generating competition among predators and natural selection on particular prey signal features. Alternatively, predator species could vary in their preferences for prey signal properties, resulting in sensory-based niche partitioning of prey resources. In the Neotropics, many substrate-gleaning bats use the mate-attraction songs of male katydids to locate them as prey. We studied mechanisms of niche partitioning in four substrate-gleaning bat species and found they are similar in morphology, echolocation signal design and prey-handling ability, but each species preferred different acoustic features of male song in 12 sympatric katydid species. This divergence in predator preference probably contributes to the coexistence of many substrate-gleaning bat species in the Neotropics, and the substantial diversity in the mate-attraction signals of katydids. Our results provide insight into how multiple eavesdropping predator species might influence prey signal evolution through sensory-based niche partitioning.


PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Caley ◽  
Geoffrey R. Hosack ◽  
Simon C. Barry

Wildlife collision data are ubiquitous, though challenging for making ecological inference due to typically irreducible uncertainty relating to the sampling process. We illustrate a new approach that is useful for generating inference from predator data arising from wildlife collisions. By simply conditioning on a second prey species sampled via the same collision process, and by using a biologically realistic numerical response functions, we can produce a coherent numerical response relationship between predator and prey. This relationship can then be used to make inference on the population size of the predator species, including the probability of extinction. The statistical conditioning enables us to account for unmeasured variation in factors influencing the runway strike incidence for individual airports and to enable valid comparisons. A practical application of the approach for testing hypotheses about the distribution and abundance of a predator species is illustrated using the hypothesized red fox incursion into Tasmania, Australia. We estimate that conditional on the numerical response between fox and lagomorph runway strikes on mainland Australia, the predictive probability of observing no runway strikes of foxes in Tasmania after observing 15 lagomorph strikes is 0.001. We conclude there is enough evidence to safely reject the null hypothesis that there is a widespread red fox population in Tasmania at a population density consistent with prey availability. The method is novel and has potential wider application.


Author(s):  
André M. de Roos ◽  
Lennart Persson

This chapter discusses a variety of positive interactions between predators foraging on different stages of the same prey species, which all emerge owing to the biomass overcompensation that may occur in prey life history stages in response to increased mortality. These interactions include emergent facilitation of specialist predators by generalists that forage on the same prey individuals as the specialists, but in addition forage on smaller or larger prey individuals as well. Furthermore, the chapter shows that two predators that specialize on different life-history stages of prey can facilitate each other to the extent that one predator relies on the presence of the other for its persistence. A stage-specific predator may act as a catalyst species, which promotes and in fact is necessary for the invasion of another predator species, but is subsequently outcompeted by the latter.


2005 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Dhar

In this paper, a prey‐predator dynamics, where the predator species partially depends upon the prey species, in a two patch habitat with diffusion and there is a non‐diffusing additional resource for the prey population, is modeled and analyzed. It is shown, that there exists a positive, monotonic, continuous steady state solution with continuous matching at the interface for both the species separately. Further, we obtain conditions for asymptotic stability for both linear and nonlinear cases. Šiame straipsnyje modeliuojama ir analizuojama plešr‐unu ir auku dinamika, laikant, kad plešr-unu populiacija dalinai priklauso nuo auku skačiaus. Areala sudaro dvi sritys, kuriose vyksta populiaciju individu difuzija, be to, aukoms yra išskirtas nedifunduojantis resursas. Irodyta, kad egzistuoja teigiamas, monotoniškas, tolydus stacionarusis sprendinys, tenkinantis tolydumo salyga abiems populiacijoms atskirai. Gautos asimptotinio stabilumo salygos tiesiniu ir netiesiniu atvejais.


Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Diel ◽  
Marvin Kiene ◽  
Dominik Martin-Creuzburg ◽  
Christian Laforsch

Phenotypic plasticity in defensive traits is an appropriate mechanism to cope with the variable hazard of a frequently changing predator spectrum. In the animal kingdom these so-called inducible defences cover the entire taxonomic range from protozoans to vertebrates. The inducible defensive traits range from behaviour, morphology, and life-history adaptations to the activation of specific immune systems in vertebrates. Inducible defences in prey species play important roles in the dynamics and functioning of food webs. Freshwater zooplankton show the most prominent examples of inducible defences triggered by chemical cues, so-called kairomones, released by predatory invertebrates and fish. The objective of this review is to highlight recent progress in research on inducible defences in freshwater zooplankton concerning behaviour, morphology, and life-history, as well as difficulties of studies conducted in a multipredator set up. Furthermore, we outline costs associated with the defences and discuss difficulties as well as the progress made in characterizing defence-inducing cues. Finally, we aim to indicate further possible routes in this field of research and provide a comprehensive table of inducible defences with respect to both prey and predator species.


Author(s):  
Daniela Faas ◽  
Shuya Gong

This study explores whether changing design objectives during introductory mechanical engineering courses would improve design novelty and quality when these courses offer a competition element. Design fixation can occur when students are presented with the same design objective because the institutionalized “best” solutions are transferred from semester to semester and student to student. Design competitions are a popular way to teach the design and construction components, often with a focus on robotics. Some competitions are newly designed and rebuilt every single semester, requiring advanced planning and often high budgets. Others reuse a similar competition from year to year without any changes to the design objectives. This paper tries to answer whether or not students are building more novel designs when the competition changes from semester to semester. In this study, robots from four different configurations for a design-and-build activity were analyzed. The unchanged design prompt and 3 semesters of different design prompts were included in the study. The evaluations of the robots were based on the performance of the robots, the type and quality of the designs, and the relationship between the design competition and the robots. Results from this study suggest that changing design objectives (i.e. challenges found in a robotic competition) allows for a wider variation in the designs. While the average novelty did not change, students were no longer limited to and fixated on a very small range of designs.


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