Predator switching strength controls stability in diamond-shaped food web models
Predator switching strength controls stability in diamond-shaped food web models
Date
2023-05-25
Authors
Archibald, Kevin M.
Sosik, Heidi M.
Moeller, Holly V.
Neubert, Michael G.
Sosik, Heidi M.
Moeller, Holly V.
Neubert, Michael G.
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DOI
10.1016/j.jtbi.2023.111536
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Keywords
Predator switching
Food web dynamics
Phytoplankton diversity
Kill-the-winner
Food web dynamics
Phytoplankton diversity
Kill-the-winner
Abstract
In food web models that include more than one prey type for a single predator, it is common for the predator’s functional response to include some form of switching—preferential consumption of more abundant prey types. Predator switching promotes coexistence among competing prey types and increases diversity in the prey community. Here, we show how the dynamics of a diamond-shaped food web model of a marine plankton community are sensitive to a parameter that sets the strength of predator switching. Stronger switching destabilizes the model’s coexistence equilibrium and leads to the appearance of limit cycles. Stronger switching also increases the evenness of the asymptotic prey community and promotes synchrony in the dynamics of disparate prey types. Given the dependence of model behavior on the strength of predator switching, it is important that modelers carefully consider the parameterization of functional responses that include switching.•Predators that exhibit switching promote coexistence between prey types.•However, strong switching may destabilize this coexistence and produce limit cycles.•In communities with many prey, evenness increases with the strength of switching.
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© The Author(s), 2023. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Archibald, K., Sosik, H., Moeller, H., & Neubert, M. Predator switching strength controls stability in diamond-shaped food web models. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 570, (2023): 111536, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2023.111536.
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Archibald, K., Sosik, H., Moeller, H., & Neubert, M. (2023). Predator switching strength controls stability in diamond-shaped food web models. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 570, 111536.