Handling time promotes the coevolution of aggregation in predator-prey systems.

ABSTRACT: Predators often have type II functional responses and live in environments where their life history traits as well as those of their prey vary from patch to patch. To understand how spatial heterogeneity and predator handling times influence the coevolution of patch preferences and ecological stability, we perform an ecological and evolutionary analysis of a Nicholson-Bailey type model. We prove that coevolutionarily stable prey and searching predators prefer patches that in isolation support higher prey and searching predator densities, respectively. Using this fact, we determine how environmental variation and predator handling times influence the spatial patterns of patch preferences, population abundances and per-capita predation rates. In particular, long predator handling times are s

SUBMITTER: Schreiber SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1560034 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature