Consumer-resource dynamics

William W. Murdoch, Cheryl J. Briggs, Roger M. Nisbet

476 pages, parution le 26/06/2003

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Résumé

Despite often violent fluctuations in nature, species extinction is rare. California red scale, a potentially devastating pest of citrus, has been suppressed for fifty years in California to extremely low yet stable densities by its controlling parasitoid. Some larch budmoth populations undergo extreme cycles; others never cycle. In Consumer-Resource Dynamics, William Murdoch, Cherie Briggs, and Roger Nisbet use these and numerous other biological examples to lay the groundwork for a unifying theory applicable to predator-prey, parasitoid-host, and other consumer-resource interactions. Throughout, the focus is on how the properties of real organisms affect population dynamics.

The core of the book synthesizes and extends the authors' own models involving insect parasitoids and their hosts, and explores in depth how consumer species compete for a dynamic resource. The emerging general consumer-resource theory accounts for how consumers respond to differences among individuals in the resource population. From here the authors move to other models of consumer-resource dynamics and population dynamics in general. Consideration of empirical examples, key concepts, and a necessary review of simple models is followed by examination of spatial processes affecting dynamics, and of implications for biological control of pest organisms. The book establishes the coherence and broad applicability of consumer-resource theory and connects it to single-species dynamics. It closes by stressing the theory's value as a hierarchy of models that allows both generality and testability in the field.

Introduction
Population dynamics : Observations and basics concepts
Simple models in continuous time
Simple models in discrete time
An introduction to models with stage structure
Dynamical effects of parasitoid lifestyles
State-dependent decisions
Competition between consumer species
Implications for biological control
Dynamical effects of spatial processes
Synthesis and integration across systems
Concluding remarks

Literature cited
Index

L'auteur - William W. Murdoch

William W. Murdoch is Charles A. Storke II Professor of Ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published widely on population dynamics and other ecological subjects.

L'auteur - Cheryl J. Briggs

Cheryl J. Briggs is Associate Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has published extensively on the population and community consequences of insect-parasitoid and host-disease interactions.

L'auteur - Roger M. Nisbet

Roger M. Nisbet is Professor of Biological Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A longtime specialist in ecological modeling, he is the author of two books and numerous articles.

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Princeton University Press
Auteur(s)	William W. Murdoch, Cheryl J. Briggs, Roger M. Nisbet
Parution	26/06/2003
Nb. de pages	476
Format	14 x 21,5
Couverture	Broché
Poids	565g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780691006574
ISBN13	978-0-691-00657-4