title: ECOLOGICAL THEORY. A general consumer-resource population model.
abstract: Food-web dynamics arise from predator-prey, parasite-host, and herbivore-plant interactions. Models for such interactions include up to three consumer activity states (questing, attacking, consuming) and up to four resource response states (susceptible, exposed, ingested, resistant). Articulating these states into a general model allows for dissecting, comparing, and deriving consumer-resource models. We specify this general model for 11 generic consumer strategies that group mathematically into predators, parasites, and micropredators and then derive conditions for consumer success, including a universal saturating functional response. We further show how to use this framework to create simple models with a common mathematical lineage and transparent assumptions. Underlying assumptions, missing elements, and composite parameters are revealed when classic consumer-resource models are derived from the general model.
authors: Western Ecological Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Marine Science Institute, University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA. klafferty@usgs.gov.
authors: Kevin D
authors: KD
authors: Lafferty
authors: Hopkins Marine Station Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors: Giulio
authors: G
authors: DeLeo
authors: Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
authors: Cheryl J
authors: CJ
authors: Briggs
authors: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. Santa Fe Institute, Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
authors: Andrew P
authors: AP
authors: Dobson
authors: Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
authors: Thilo
authors: T
authors: Gross
authors: Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
authors: Armand M
authors: AM
authors: Kuris
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020387:Food Chain; D060434:Herbivory; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010271:Parasites / Q000145:classification; D010944:Plants / Q000469:parasitology; D011158:Population Growth