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The Resident-intruder Paradigm: A Standardized Test for Aggression, Violence and Social Stress

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Alternative stable states in communities with intraguild predation.

Ariane Verdy¹, Priyanga Amarasekare

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, 90095, USA. averdy@ucla.edu

Journal of Theoretical Biology

|September 22, 2009

Summary

Intraguild predation (IGP) can lead to alternative stable states, but detecting them is challenging. Environmental factors and resource productivity influence the visibility of these ecological states.

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Theoretical Ecology
Population Dynamics

Background:

Intraguild predation (IGP) involves consumers sharing resources and predator-prey interactions.
Ecological theory predicts alternative stable states in IGP, yet empirical evidence is limited.
The rarity of observed alternative states questions their natural occurrence.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the conditions under which alternative stable states arise in IGP models.
To determine the influence of environmental constraints on the detectability of these states.
To identify specific combinations of alternative stable states in ecological communities.

Main Methods:

Analysis of a mathematical model with logistic or chemostat resource dynamics.
Inclusion of consumers with saturating (Type II) functional responses.
Use of bifurcation diagrams to explore parameter space and identify stable states.

Main Results:

Alternative stable states can emerge across diverse biological scenarios.
Three combinations of states were identified: IG prey/IG predator, coexistence/IG predator, and coexistence/IG prey.
Environmental constraints and narrow resource productivity ranges can hinder the observation of alternative states.

Conclusions:

Alternative stable states are possible in IGP systems under various conditions.
Detecting these states is challenging due to ecological and environmental factors.
Microcosm experiments along productivity gradients offer a potential method for observing stable states.