the modeling investigation in this paper discusses the system level effects of a toxicant on a three species food chain system. in the models, we have assumed that the presence of top predator reduces the predatory ability of the intermediate predator. the stability analysis of the models is carried out and the sufficient conditions for the existence and extinction of the populations under the ...

Nest predation is a primary cause of nesting mortality for many bird species (Sk&h 1949, 1966; Nice 1957; Ricklefs 1969: Nilsson 1984). Food limitation and competition also can affect nesting success (see reviews in Martin 1986, 1987). However, the primary role of nest predation in nesting mortality suggests that it can be a strong agent of selection on bird species and assemblages; when nest p...

Seagrasses provide important habitat for fishes and invertebrates but are declining around the globe, often due to overgrowth by algae. One hypothesis for this overgrowth is that overfishing of top consumers has led to greater numbers of small predatory fishes that reduce the abundance of mesograzers. This trophic cascade hypothesis requires that the same species that control algal biomass are ...

Recent theory predicts that productivity can influence the relative importance of predation and competition in determining patterns in abundance, diversity, and community structure. In low-productivity systems, competition is predicted to be the major influence on community patterns, while at high productivity, the major influence is predicted to be predation. We directly tested this theory usi...

Neritid snails (Gastropoda: Neritimorpha) protect their eggs in a hard capsule, of tough conchiolin, reinforced by mineral particles derived from the faeces and stored in a special sac near the anus and oviduct opening. Predation on this arguably hardest of molluscan egg capsule is described and illustrated here; neritids of the freshwater to brackish-water genera Clithon and Vittina, generally...

We conducted a study to determine the contribution of lethal and nonlethal effects to a predator's net effect on a prey's population growth rate in a natural setting. We focused on the effects of an invasive invertebrate predator, Bythotrephes longimanus, on zooplankton prey populations in Lakes Michigan and Erie. Field data taken at multiple dates and locations in both systems indicated that t...

Despite the ubiquity of ontogenetic niche shifts, their drivers and consequences are poorly understood. Different nutritional requirements and stage-specific physiological limitations have often been offered as explanations for these life history features, but emerging work has demonstrated that top-down factors may also be important. We studied the roles of predation and associational refuge i...

Predation pressure can alter the morphology, physiology, life history, and behavior of prey; each of these in turn can change how surviving prey interact with parasites. These trait-mediated indirect effects may change in direction or intensity during growth or, in sexually dimorphic species, between the sexes. The Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata presents a unique opportunity to examine ...

We present a microfabricated concentrator array device that makes it possible to quantify the predation rate of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, a predatory microbe, toward its prey, Escherichia coli str. MG1655. The device can accumulate both prey and predator microbes sequentially within a series of concentrator arrays using the motility of the microbes and microfabricated arrowhead-shaped ratchet...