Consumer-resource dynamics: quantity, quality, and allocation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The dominant paradigm for modeling the complexities of interacting populations and food webs is a system of coupled ordinary differential equations in which the state of each species, population, or functional trophic group is represented by an aggregated numbers-density or biomass-density variable. Here, using the metaphysiological approach to model consumer-resource interactions, we formulate a two-state paradigm that represents each population or group in a food web in terms of both its quantity and quality.

Methodology and principal findings

The formulation includes an allocation function controlling the relative proportion of extracted resources to increasing quantity versus elevating quality. Since lower quality individuals senescence more rapidly than highe

SUBMITTER: Getz WM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3024398 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature