Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.

Population Growth

Population Growth

Population size is dynamic, increasing with birth rates and immigration, and decreasing with death rates and emigration. In ideal conditions with unlimited resources, populations can increase exponentially, which plots as a J-shaped growth rate curve of population size against time. This type of curve is characteristic of newly-introduced invasive species, or populations that have suffered catastrophic declines and are rebounding.

What are Populations and Communities?

What are Populations and Communities?

What is Behavior?

What is Behavior?

Behaviors are actions that an organism engages in—they can be related to finding food, reproducing, defending against threats, and many other possible actions. Behaviors include activities related to the environment around the animal—such as migration—as well as social interactions within a species or population. Many behaviors involve motor output—that is, muscle movements—while others involve less visible actions, such as learning.

Optimal Foraging

Optimal Foraging

How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.

Conservation of Small Populations

Conservation of Small Populations

Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Efficient, automated escape routing for high-density pad grids: deepest-exit-first algorithm for layer and wire count optimization.

Journal of neural engineering·2025

Same author

Asymptotic properties of the Lotka-Volterra competition and mutualism model under stochastic perturbations.

Mathematical medicine and biology : a journal of the IMA·2024

Same author

E3 ubiquitin ligase CBLB regulates innate immune responses and bacterial dissemination during nontuberculous mycobacteria infection.

Journal of leukocyte biology·2024

Same author

Decoherence and Turbulence Sources in a Long Laser.

Physical review letters·2023

Same author

Metabolically active angiosperms survive passage through the digestive tract of a large-bodied waterbird.

Royal Society open science·2023

Same author

Optimal quarantine-related strategies for COVID-19 control models.

Studies in applied mathematics (Cambridge, Mass.)·2021

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 14, 2026

A Real-Time Interactive System for Studying Confrontational Pursuit Behavior in Rodents

A Real-Time Interactive System for Studying Confrontational Pursuit Behavior in Rodents

Published on: May 16, 2025

Memory and adaptive behavior in population dynamics: anti-predator behavior as a case study.

Alexander Pimenov¹, Thomas C Kelly², Andrei Korobeinikov³

¹Weierstrass Institute, Berlin, Germany.

Journal of Mathematical Biology

|October 6, 2016

Summary

Animal communities use memory for adaptive behavior. This study models memory using hysteresis and the Preisach operator, showing predator population history determines ecosystem equilibrium in Lotka-Volterra models.

Keywords:

Adaptation Bi-stability Hysteresis Predator-prey model Preisach operator Refuge

More Related Videos

A Behavioral Assay for Investigating the Role of Spatial Memory During Instinctive Defense in Mice

A Behavioral Assay for Investigating the Role of Spatial Memory During Instinctive Defense in Mice

Published on: July 21, 2018

Predicting the Effectiveness of Population Replacement Strategy Using Mathematical Modeling

Predicting the Effectiveness of Population Replacement Strategy Using Mathematical Modeling

Published on: July 4, 2007

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 14, 2026

A Real-Time Interactive System for Studying Confrontational Pursuit Behavior in Rodents

A Real-Time Interactive System for Studying Confrontational Pursuit Behavior in Rodents

Published on: May 16, 2025

A Behavioral Assay for Investigating the Role of Spatial Memory During Instinctive Defense in Mice

A Behavioral Assay for Investigating the Role of Spatial Memory During Instinctive Defense in Mice

Published on: July 21, 2018

Predicting the Effectiveness of Population Replacement Strategy Using Mathematical Modeling

Predicting the Effectiveness of Population Replacement Strategy Using Mathematical Modeling

Published on: July 4, 2007

Area of Science:

Ecology
Mathematical Biology
Behavioral Ecology

Background:

Memory is crucial for flexible adaptive behavior in animal communities, enabling future forecasting based on past experiences.
The Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model is a foundational ecological model, but often lacks mechanisms for adaptive memory.

Purpose of the Study:

To incorporate memory into ecological models using the concept of hysteresis, mathematically described by the Preisach operator.
To analyze the impact of memory on anti-predator adaptation within the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey framework.

Main Methods:

Mathematical modeling of memory using the Preisach operator, a concept from hysteresis.
Simulation and analysis of the modified Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model incorporating the memory operator.
Investigation of equilibrium states and stability properties of the adaptive system with memory.

Main Results:

A system with memory exhibits a continuum of equilibrium states, deviating from traditional single-equilibrium models.
The stability properties of these equilibrium states are non-trivial and influenced by the system's history.
The maximal predator population size achieved along a trajectory is the primary determinant of the system's convergent equilibrium state.

Conclusions:

Memory, modeled via hysteresis, introduces complex dynamics and multiple stable states in predator-prey systems.
The historical maximum of the predator population significantly shapes the long-term ecological outcome.
This approach offers a novel way to understand adaptive behavior and ecosystem stability in populations.