Ontogenetic scaling of foraging rates and the dynamics of a size-structured consumer-resource model (Q1281380)

The paper under review discusses the effects of different ontogenetic scalings of foraging rates as the most variable component of competitive ability on the population dynamics in a size-structured one consumer-one resource model. A physiologically structured model is developed, to investigate the effect of different ontogenetic size scalings of the attack rate on the population dynamics of a consumer-resource system. This type of approach links explicitly the dynamics occurring at the level of populations to the behaviour of individual organisms; thus, the individual (size) dependent foraging rate and the metabolic demands may be linked mechanistically to the population dynamics. Exemplifications include planktivorous fish, zooplankton and cicadas, an interesting observation made being that the model dynamics strongly resembled (as to both patterns and mechanisms), the empirically observed dynamics for fish and Daphnia populations. As to the physiologically structured model the main topics considered are: consumer-resource dynamics; individual state and individual state space; consumption rate, attack rate and handling time; mass allocation, growth, reproduction and survival; the model at the population level. The final ``Discussion'' paragraph analyzes ontogenetic scaling and population dynamics; population oscillations versus stability; cummulative formulation of the population level and escalator boxcar train formulation of the population model.