Resource-driven encounters among consumers and implications for the spread of infectious disease.

ABSTRACT: Animals share a variety of common resources, which can be a major driver of conspecific encounter rates. In this work, we implement a spatially explicit mathematical model for resource visitation behaviour in order to examine how changes in resource availability can influence the rate of encounters among consumers. Using simulations and asymptotic analysis, we demonstrate that, under a reasonable set of assumptions, the relationship between resource availability and consumer conspecific encounters is not monotonic. We characterize how the maximum encounter rate and associated critical resource density depend on system parameters like consumer density and the maximum distance from which consumers can detect and respond to resources. The assumptions underlying our theoretical model and analy

SUBMITTER: Borchering RK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5665835 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature