Using quantitative PCR that amplified a prey-specific mtDNA 214 bp amplicon from the COI mitochondrial gene of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), prey eggs of known age and number were fed to larvae of the generalist predator lady beetle Coleomegilla maculata (De Geer) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), to elucidate the effects of time and diet si...

Predators influence prey through consumption, and through trait-mediated effects such as emigration in response to predation risk (risk effects). We studied top-down effects of (sub-) adult wolf spiders (Lycosidae) on arthropods in a meadow. We compared risk effects with the overall top-down effect (including consumption) by gluing the chelicers of wolf spiders to prevent them from killing the ...

Traditionally, optimal foraging theory has been applied to situations in which a forager makes decisions about current resource consumption based on tradeoffs in resource attributes (e.g. caloric intake versus handling time). Food storage, which permits animals to manage the availability of food in space and time, adds a complex dimension to foraging decisions, and may influence the predictions...

Much of current ecological theory stems from experimental studies. These studies have often been conducted in closed systems, at spatial scales that are much smaller than the systems of interest. It is known that the outcome of these experiments may be seriously affected by artefacts associated with the caging procedures, as well as by the actual difference in spatial scale between experimental...

In this paper, a new stage structured prey-predator model with linear functional response is proposed and studied. The stages for prey have been considered. The proposed mathematical model consists of three nonlinear ordinary differential equations to describe the interaction among juvenile prey, adult prey and predator populations. The model is analyzed by using linear stability analysis to ob...

Predatory functional responses play integral roles in predator-prey dynamics, and their assessment promises greater understanding and prediction of the predatory impacts of invasive species. Other interspecific interactions, however, such as parasitism and higher-order predation, have the potential to modify predator-prey interactions and thus the predictive capability of the comparative functi...

Understanding how predators select their prey can provide important insights into community structure and dynamics. However, the suite of prey species available to a predator is often spatially and temporally variable. As a result, species-specific selectivity data are of limited use for predicting novel predator-prey interactions because they are assemblage specific. We present a method for pr...

The Rosenzweig-MacArthur predator-prey model is the building block in modeling food chain, webs and ecosystems. There are a number of hidden assumptions involved derivation. For instance prey population growth logistic without predation but also with predation. In order to reveal these we will start modelling resource-predator-prey system closed spatially homogeneous environment. This allows us...

In this paper we explore the eco-evolutionary dynamics of a predatorprey model, where the prey population is structured according to a certain life history trait. The trait distribution within the prey population is the result of interplay between genetic inheritance and mutation, as well as selectivity in the consumption of prey by the predator. The evolutionary processes are considered to tak...

We determined the responses of a model laboratory community to resource enrichment and compared these responses to the predictions of prey-dependent and ratiodependent food chain models. Our model community consisted of Escherichia coli B and bacteriophage T4 in chemostats supplied with different concentrations of glucose. We observed the following responses to enrichment: (1) a large and highl...