Size-dependent functional response of Xenopus laevis feeding on mosquito larvae.

ABSTRACT: Predators can play an important role in regulating prey abundance and diversity, determining food web structure and function, and contributing to important ecosystem services, including the regulation of agricultural pests and disease vectors. Thus, the ability to predict predator impact on prey is an important goal in ecology. Often, predators of the same species are assumed to be functionally equivalent, despite considerable individual variation in predator traits known to be important for shaping predator-prey interactions, like body size. This assumption may greatly oversimplify our understanding of within-species functional diversity and undermine our ability to predict predator effects on prey. Here, we examine the degree to which predator-prey interactions are functionally homogenou

SUBMITTER: Thorp CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6204824 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature