16: Exploitation Flashcards
Types of Predation/Exploitation
- True Predator
- Herbivores
- Parasitism
True Predator
- Kill prey immediately
- consume multiple prey organisms
- function as agents of mortality on their prey
Herbivores
- consume only part of a plant
- doesn’t cause mortality
Parasitism/Parasitoids
- feeds on host while it is alive
- generally the activity isn’t lethal over the short term
Types of Population Growth Control
- Bottom-Up
2. Top-Down
Prey can regulate predator population growth
Bottom-Up Population Control
Predation can regulate prey population growth
Top-Down Population Control
Passive Predators (Filter Feeders) functional response type
Type I
What can cause Type III functional response?
Refuge and Prey Switching
Numerical Responses to Prey Density
more prey=more predators=more prey consumed (consumptive effects/lethal effects)
Aggregative Response to Prey Density
more food=more predators coming to feed
Reproductive Response to Prey Density
more food=more offspring
Functional Response to Prey Density
more prey eaten per predator
Functional Response to Predator Density
more predators=less prey around (trait-mediated/non-lethal effects)
“smarter prey” Hypothesis
Predators act as an agent of mortality. Prey that can evolve to reduce detection and capture by predators should have higher fitness. Thus, evolution should produce “smarter” more evasive prey.
