Behavioural Ecology Flashcards
Behavioural Ecology
Focuses on individual behaviours and how they influence fitness and the interactions with the environment
- Genetic basis
- Two aspects of behaviour: foraging and sexual selection
What decisions does an organism need to make to capture nutrients/energy?
- What and how much to eat?
- How long to forage?
- When to move to a new area?
Needs energy with limited time = trade-offs.
Allocate time and energy to eat AND reproduce
Optimal Foraging Theory
Based on the idea that natural selection will influence how organisms feed and behave while foraging
Assumes that natural selection is likely to favour individuals within a population that are more effective at acquiring limited resources.
Maximize gains: energy/nutrients
Minimize loss: time, risk (predation), and energy spent on foraging
Optimal Foraging Models
Models how an organism feed as an optimizing process which maximizes the net energy gained per unit feeding time
2 models:
- Charnov’s Marginal Value Theorem (patch model)
- Optimal Diet Composition Model
Eating in a patch (graph)
Why does it have this shape?
Cumulative max of food/energy to gain -> there is limited food in a given area so it must flatten out at some point
Eating in a patch (with travel time)
The slope of the line is the rate of energy gain (steeper slope = better energy gain in less time)
Time searching for or travelling to a patch: reduces energy gain the more time spent on travel/search = negative energy gain
If travel time increases, there will be less energy gain overall (diminishing returns)
How does patch quality influence time spent in a patch?
High quality = more time in patch but much higher energy gain
Low quality = less time in patch but low energy gain. Not worth spending much time in low quality patch.
Predictions From the Patch Model
- Foragers should abandon a patch when the rate of energy gain is at a maximal
- Foragers should stay in a rich patch longer than a poor patch
- For patches of the same quality, time spent foraging should increase with time spent travelling to a patch
Diet: Selection of Food Factors
- Abundance: quantity of different food types vary in time and space
- Handling time: how long it takes to handle and consume an item
- Maximum rate of energy intake: how can an organism choose which food to eat to maximize the rate of energy intake
Optimal Diet Model
Foraging Time (T): divided into Searching (Ts) and Handling (Th)
Suppose there are different prey items (Pi)
- Each has different energy value (Ei)
- Each has different handling time (Th)
- i indicates the prey item
Optimal Diet Model: Profitability
(Ei)/(Thi)
Individuals should always choose to eat the most profitable food type if they encounter it.
If encounter a less profitable item, should they eat it?
- Eat it if the energy gain is higher than going elsewhere and wasting energy searching
- Do not eat if energy gain going elsewhere is better despite more searching
Whether an individual should include the less profitable item in its diet depends on:
The search time of the most profitable prey item.
Specialist:
If the most profitable item is common (less search time), then it is more likely to just eat the more profitable item
Generalist:
If the most profitable item is rare (high search time), then it is more likely to eat other items
Food choice depends on a number of factors:
- Net energy gain by eating a food
- How long it takes to handle a food
- How long individuals search for a food
- Relative abundance of each food type
Organisms only include a food source in their diet if their rate of energy intake increases by doing so
Type I Functional Response
Linear graph
Does this graph tell us about the feeding rate of the predator as a function of prey density?
As prey density increases, feed rate increases linearly
What does the slope of the line represent? What would a change in slope signify?
- Efficiency of the predator at capturing prey
- Proportion of prey density consumed
