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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter
Published on: March 12, 2013
Dispersal delays, predator-prey stability, and the paradox of enrichment
Petra Klepac1, Michael G Neubert, P van den Driessche
1Biology Department, MS #34, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543-1049, USA. petra@whoi.edu
Abstract:
It takes time for individuals to move from place to place. This travel time can be incorporated into metapopulation models via a delay in the interpatch migration term. Such a term has been shown to stabilize the positive equilibrium of the classical Lotka-Volterra predator-prey system with one species (either the predator or the prey) dispersing. We study a more realistic, Rosenzweig-MacArthur, model that includes a carrying capacity for the prey, and saturating functional response for the predator. We show that dispersal delays can stabilize the predator-prey equilibrium point despite the presence of a Type II functional response that is known to be destabilizing. We also show that dispersal delays reduce the amplitude of oscillations when the equilibrium is unstable, and therefore may help resolve the paradox of enrichment.
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