The thesis examines the dynamics of intraguild predation models incorporating adaptive behaviour. The top predator varies its relative consumption of the intermediate consumer and the basal resource. The consumer alters its activity level in response to the threat of predation. Incorporating these adaptive behaviours facilitated three species coexistence, but restricted omnivory by promoting the formation of three species food chains. Model modifications which promoted omnivory also tended to reduce three species coexistence. It is predicted that omnivory should be most common when the intermediate and the basal species are similarly profitable to the predator. The model also predicts two types of omnivory. Strong omnivory occurs when the predator always consumes intermediate amounts of both prey items. Weak omnivory occurs when the predator preys almost exclusively on one prey at most times, but rapidly switches to include the other when the relative abundance of that second prey exceeds a certain level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/17168 |
| Date | 24 February 2009 |
| Creators | Fung, Simon Ronald |
| Contributors | Abrams, Peter |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 994136 bytes, application/pdf |
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