PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #9: Theoretical Ecology -- Populations, interactions.
Presiding: D. Srivastava
Monday, August 5. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Grand Ballroom Central, Radisson.

Effects of an optimal patch departure rule on population dynamics.

Hosseini, Parviez^*,1, Richards, Shane², Nisbet, Roger³, ¹ Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY² NCEAS, Santa Barbara, CA³ University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

ABSTRACT- We examine the effect an optimal patch departure rule for predators has on the stability of the predator-prey dynamics, and how the optimality of a strategy in turn depends on the population dynamics. We find that for any parameters for which the population dynamics can cycle, the optimal strategy occurs in the region of cyclic dynamics. Although this instability in the population dynamics means that the optimality calculation is not precisely accurate, it provides a qualitative guide to the area of parameter space where the true optimal strategy will be found. Thus we conclude that localized interactions, and the details of how organisms move in space can seriously affect the stability, and general qualitative behavior of the population dynamics of predator-prey systems. These effects can range from subtle alterations of effects known from previous models, to the introduction of novel mechanisms of stability.

KEY WORDS: Optimal Foraging, Populaiton Dynamics, Predator-Prey