Consumer-Resource Dynamics

by Murdoch, William W.; Briggs, Cheryl J.; Nisbet, Roger M.

• ISBN13: 9780691006574
• ISBN10: 0691006571
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-06
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Despite often violent fluctuations in nature, species extinction is rare. California red scale, a potentially devastating pest of citrus, has been suppressed for fifty years in California to extremely low yet stable densities by its controlling parasitoid. Some larch budmoth populations undergo extreme cycles; others never cycle. In Consumer-Resource Dynamics, William Murdoch, Cherie Briggs, and Roger Nisbet use these and numerous other biological examples to lay the groundwork for a unifying theory applicable to predator-prey, parasitoid-host, and other consumer-resource interactions. Throughout, the focus is on how the properties of real organisms affect population dynamics. The core of the book synthesizes and extends the authors' own models involving insect parasitoids and their hosts, and explores in depth how consumer species compete for a dynamic resource. The emerging general consumer-resource theory accounts for how consumers respond to differences among individuals in the resource population. From here the authors move to other models of consumer-resource dynamics and population dynamics in general. Consideration of empirical examples, key concepts, and a necessary review of simple models is followed by examination of spatial processes affecting dynamics, and of implications for biological control of pest organisms. The book establishes the coherence and broad applicability of consumer-resource theory and connects it to single-species dynamics. It closes by stressing the theory's value as a hierarchy of models that allows both generality and testability in the field.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(5)
Why Consumer-Resource Interactions?	1	(1)
On Theory and Models	2	(2)
Themes	4	(2)
Population Dynamics: Observations and Basic Concepts	6	(24)
Types of Population Dynamics: Phenomena to Be Explained	6	(9)
Some Essential Concepts	15	(11)
Appendix	26	(4)
Simple Models in Continuous Time	30	(53)
The Lotka-Volterra Model	31	(5)
Local Stability Analysis	36	(6)
Effects of Stabilizing and Destabilizing Processes: A Survey	42	(11)
Combining Stabilizing and Destabilizing Processes: From Neutral Stability to Limit Cycles	53	(7)
Simple Models of Stage and Spatial Structure: The Creation of Indirect Density Dependence	60	(9)
Basic and Potential General Properties of Predator-Prey Systems	69	(3)
Appendix	72	(11)
Simple Models in Discrete Time	83	(36)
Single-Species Models in Discrete Time	84	(9)
Discrete-Generation Parasitoid-Host Models	93	(13)
Hybrid Discrete-Time/Continuous-Time Models	106	(5)
Appendix	111	(8)
An Introduction to Models with Stage Structure	119	(60)
Preamble: Single-Species Populations with Stage Structure	121	(13)
The Basic Stage-Structured Host-Parasitoid Model	134	(13)
Ecological Processes Inducing Instability	147	(2)
Ecological Processes Inducing Stability	149	(11)
Single-Generation Cycles in Parasitoid-Host Models	160	(10)
Appendix	170	(9)
Dynamical Effects of Parasitoid Lifestyles	179	(40)
Parasitoid Lifestyles	180	(6)
Four Mechanisms Inducing Greater Gain from Older Hosts	186	(13)
A Unifying Framework and Extensions	199	(6)
A More General Model: The Generic Gain Model	205	(2)
The Nature and Origins of Delayed-Feedback Cycles and Single-Generation Cycles: Insights from a Simplified Model	207	(9)
Concluding Remarks	216	(3)
State-Dependent Decisions	219	(26)
Effects of Egg Load on Parasitoid Decisions	220	(16)
Effects of Limits to Egg Production	236	(6)
A General Dynamical Theory of Parasitoid Behavior	242	(3)
Competition between Consumer Species	245	(73)
Lotka-Volterra Competition Model: Competition for an Implicit Resource	247	(8)
Exploitative Competition for an Explicit Resource	255	(19)
Competition in Discrete Time	274	(7)
Effects of Age Structure on Competition	281	(20)
Non-Equilibrial Mechanisms of Coexistence	301	(9)
Effects of Spatial Structure on Competition	310	(7)
Concluding Remarks	317	(1)
Implications for Biological Control	318	(23)
A Comparative Approach to Evaluating Natural Enemies	321	(15)
Spatial Processes and Control	336	(4)
Need for Experimental Tests	340	(1)
Dynamical Effects of Spatial Processes	341	(53)
Spatial Processes among Subpopulations	341	(25)
Spatial Processes within Populations: Aggregated Attacks and Other Sources of Variation in Risk among Individuals	366	(26)
Connection between Processes within Populations and among Subpopulations	392	(2)
Synthesis and Integration across Systems	394	(22)
Shared Theory for Different Kinds of Consumer-Resource Interactions	394	(5)
Connection between Consumer-Resource Dynamics and Single-Species Dynamics in Theory and Nature	399	(11)
Cycles in Real Systems: Single-Species Models for Many-Species Systems	410	(4)
General Conclusions/Considerations	414	(2)
Concluding Remarks	416	(9)
Literature Cited	425	(26)
Index	451