Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 30, 2025
16:03
A Fish-feeding Laboratory Bioassay to Assess the Antipredatory Activity of Secondary Metabolites from the Tissues of Marine Organisms
Published on: January 11, 2015
9.5K
Predator switching strength controls stability in diamond-shaped food web models
Kevin M Archibald1, Heidi M Sosik2, Holly V Moeller3
1University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA.
Journal of Theoretical Biology
|May 18, 2023
Summary
Predator switching, where predators prefer abundant prey, can destabilize marine food webs. Stronger switching in plankton models leads to unpredictable cycles and increased prey synchrony.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Theoretical Ecology
- Marine Ecology
Background:
- Food web models often incorporate predator switching, where predators preferentially consume more abundant prey.
- Predator switching is understood to promote prey coexistence and enhance community diversity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of predator switching strength on the dynamics of a marine plankton food web model.
- To analyze how variations in switching behavior affect prey community stability and diversity.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a diamond-shaped food web model representing a marine plankton community.
- Simulated model dynamics by varying the parameter controlling the strength of predator switching.
Main Results:
- Stronger predator switching destabilized the model's coexistence equilibrium, leading to the emergence of limit cycles.
- Increased switching enhanced the evenness of the asymptotic prey community.
- Stronger switching promoted synchrony in the population dynamics of different prey types.
Conclusions:
- The dynamics of marine plankton food webs are highly sensitive to the strength of predator switching.
- Modelers must carefully parameterize functional responses that include switching to accurately represent ecological interactions.
- Predator switching can have complex, non-intuitive effects on community stability and prey dynamics.
Related Concept Videos
02:39Predator-Prey Interactions
16.5K
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.
16.5K
01:46Types of Selection
40.8K
Natural selection influences the frequencies of particular alleles and phenotypes within populations in several different ways. Primarily, natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive. Directional selection favors one extreme trait and shifts the population towards that phenotype while selecting against individuals displaying alternate traits. Stabilizing selection favors an intermediate trait with a narrow range of variation. Deviation from the optimal phenotype towards an...
40.8K
01:21Frequency-dependent Selection
22.1K
When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.
22.1K
00:46Trophic Efficiency
20.8K
Trophic level transfer efficiency (TLTE) is a measure of the total energy transfer from one trophic level to the next. Due to extensive energy loss as metabolic heat, an average of only 10% of the original energy obtained is passed on to the next level. This pattern of energy loss severely limits the possible number of trophic levels in a food chain.
20.8K
01:06Fixed Action Patterns
16.1K
A fixed action pattern (FAP) is a specific, hard-wired sequence of behaviors that occurs in response to an external stimulus, called a sign stimulus. The behavior is “fixed” because it is essentially unchangeable—proceeding similarly across individuals of a species every time it occurs.
16.1K
01:32What is Natural Selection?
115.8K
Natural selection is an evolutionary process in which individuals with survival-promoting traits reproduce at higher rates. These favorable traits become more common within a population or species. Naturally selected traits initially arise via random genetic mutations. In order for selection to occur, there must be variation within a population, the trait controlling the variation must be heritable, and there must be an evolutionary advantage for variation in the trait.
115.8K