Deriving the Functional Response without Assuming Homogeneity

In many real systems, predators will forage in a number of food patches within a relatively short time and will consequently experience a variety of food densities. Hence, derivation of the functional response in such cases must adequately represent these heterogeneities. We present one approach to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American naturalist 1994-09, Vol.144 (3), p.537-541
Main Authors: Ruxton, G. D., Gurney, W. S. C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal ethology
Biological and medical sciences
Coefficients
Food consumption
Food distribution
Functional responses
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Invertebrates
Notes and Comments
Predators
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Resultants
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Summary:In many real systems, predators will forage in a number of food patches within a relatively short time and will consequently experience a variety of food densities. Hence, derivation of the functional response in such cases must adequately represent these heterogeneities. We present one approach to this task. A publication by Rothschild (1991) argues that, from a predator's viewpoint, heterogeneities manifest themselves in the distribution of intervals between encounters with food items. He calls this distribution the food signal. Rothschild investigates the effect of a double exponential food signal on the functional response. His mathematics are quite involved, and the resulting uptake rate is cumbersome and necessitates numerical solution. We show that if the algebra is taken a little further, considerable simplification is obtained, and the behavior of the resultant form can be easily understood.
ISSN:0003-0147
1537-5323
DOI:10.1086/285692