Consumer-Resource Dynamics: (36 Monographs in Population Biology)

Using numerous biological examples to lay the groundwork for a unifying theory applicable to predator-prey, parasitoid-host, and other consumer-resource interactions, this book focuses on how the properties of real organisms affect population dynamics. It synthesizes and extends the authors' own models involving insect parasitoids and their hosts.

Table of Contents:
Preface xi 1. Introduction 1 Why Consumer-Resource Interactions? 1 On Theory and Models 2 Themes 4 2. Population Dynamics: Observations and Basic Concepts 6 Types of Population Dynamics: Phenomena to Be Explained 6 Some Essential Concepts 15 Appendix 26 3. Simple Models in Continuous Time 30 The Lotka-Volterra Model 31 Local Stability Analysis 36 Effects of Stabilizing and Destabilizing Processes: A Survey 42 Combining Stabilizing and Destabilizing Processes: From Neutral Stability to Limit Cycles 53 Simple Models of Stage and Spatial Structure: The Creation of Indirect Density Dependence 60 Basic and Potential General Properties of Predator-Prey Systems 69 Appendix 72 4. Simple Models in Discrete Time 83 Single-Species Models in Discrete Time 84 Discrete-Generation Parasitoid-Host Models 93 Hybrid Discrete-Time/Continuous-Time Models 106 Appendix 111 5. An Introduction to Models with Stage Structure 119 Preamble: Single-Species Populations with Stage Structure 121 The Basic Stage-Structured Host-Parasitoid Model 134 Ecological Processes Inducing Instability 147 Ecological Processes Inducing Stability 149 Single-Generation Cycles in Parasitoid-Host Models 160 Appendix 170 6. Dynamical Effects of Parasitoid Lifestyles 179 Parasitoid Lifestyles 180 Four Mechanisms Inducing Greater Gain from Older Hosts 186 A Unifying Framework and Extensions 199 A More General Model: The Generic Gain Model 205 The Nature and Origins of Delayed-Feedback Cycles and Single-Generation Cycles: Insights from a Simplified Model 207 Concluding Remarks 216 7. State-Dependent Decisions 219 Effects of Egg Load on Parasitoid Decisions 220 Effects of Limits to Egg Production 236 A General Dynamical Theory of Parasitoid Behavior 242 8. Competition between Consumer Species 245 Lotka-Volterra Competition Model: Competition for an Implicit Resource 247 Exploitative Competition for an Explicit Resource 255 Competition in Discrete Time 274 Effects of Age Structure on Competition 281 Non-Equilibrial Mechanisms of Coexistence 301 Effects of Spatial Structure on Competition 310 Concluding Remarks 317 9. Implications for Biological Control 318 A Comparative Approach to Evaluating Natural Enemies 321 Spatial Processes and Control 336 Need for Experimental Tests 340 10. Dynamical Effects of Spatial Processes 341 Spatial Processes among Subpopulations 341 Spatial Processes within Populations: Aggregated Attacks and Other Sources of Variation in Risk among Individuals 366 Connection between Processes within Populations and among Subpopulations 392 11. Synthesis and Integration across Systems 394 Shared Theory for Different Kinds of Consumer-Resource Interactions 394 Connection between Consumer-Resource Dynamics and Single-Species Dynamics in Theory and Nature 399 Cycles in Real Systems: Single-Species Models for Many-Species Systems 410 General Conclusions/Considerations 414 12. Concluding Remarks 416 Literature Cited 425 Index 451

About the Author :
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. 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. 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.

Review :
The authors ... have succeeded in presenting some complex mathematics within a matrix of verbal clarity, which is rare among such books. Bulletin of the British Ecological Society Consumer Resource Dynamics needs to be on any ecological theorist's bookshelf... A careful, detailed analysis, and a well-written book. -- Patrick Foley Ecology