PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #58: Theoretical Ecology.
Presiding: M. Neubert
Wednesday, August 7. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Grand Ballroom East, Radisson.
Plant community structure mediated through herbivore behavior.
RICHARDS, SHANE*,1, SEABLOOM, ERIC1, 1 National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, CA
ABSTRACT- It is well known that herbivory and plant community structure can interact in complex ways. For example, when herbivores prefer to feed on early successional species, they may generate conditions that favor these species and thus generate a positive feedback. We use a stochastic Markov chain model to identify how the foraging behavior of a territorial herbivore can generate positive feedbacks and how herbivores can structure plant communities across multiple spatial scales (i.e. within and between territories). We find that when herbivores prefer early successional species their population will often approach an equilibrium such that a fixed region of the landscape becomes permanently occupied by herbivores and composed of a range of successional species, whereas the remaining landscape is avoided and thus dominated by late successional species. Initial conditions and the dispersal behavior of herbivores determine which regions of the landscape become occupied by herbivores.
KEY WORDS: Spatial , Modeling