title: Maternal effects on offspring consumption can stabilize fluctuating predator-prey systems.
abstract: Maternal effects, where the conditions experienced by mothers affect the phenotype of their offspring, are widespread in nature and have the potential to influence population dynamics. However, they are very rarely included in models of population dynamics. Here, we investigate a recently discovered maternal effect, where maternal food availability affects the feeding rate of offspring so that well-fed mothers produce fast-feeding offspring. To understand how this maternal effect influences population dynamics, we explore novel predator-prey models where the consumption rate of predators is modified by changes in maternal prey availability. We address the 'paradox of enrichment', a theoretical prediction that nutrient enrichment destabilizes populations, leading to cycling behaviour and an increased risk of extinction, which has proved difficult to confirm in the wild. Our models show that enriched populations can be stabilized by maternal effects on feeding rate, thus presenting an intriguing potential explanation for the general absence of 'paradox of enrichment' behaviour in natural populations. This stabilizing influence should also reduce a population's risk of extinction and vulnerability to harvesting.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Ashworth Laboratories, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK j.garbutt@ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jennie S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Garbutt
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Ashworth Laboratories, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
authors.forename: Tom J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Little
authors.affiliation: Computing Science and Mathematics, School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoyle
mesh_terms: D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D003621:Daphnia / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D012098:Reproduction
keywords: consumer resource; consumption rate; dynamics; maternal effect; mathematical model; predator–prey