Theoretical studies have shown a paradoxical destabilizing response of predator–prey ecosystems to enrichment, but there is the gap between the intuitive view of nature and this theoretical prediction. We studied a minimal predator–prey system (a two predator–two prey system) in which the paradox of enrichment pattern can vanish; the destabilization with enrichment is reversed, leading to stabi...

Most organisms possess anti-predator adaptations to reduce their risk of being consumed, but little is known of the adaptations prey employ during vulnerable life-history transitions when predation pressures can be extreme. We demonstrate the use of a transition-specific anti-predator adaptation by coral reef fishes as they metamorphose from pelagic larvae to benthic juveniles, when over half a...

In recent years, non-autonomous predator-prey systems have been widely studied [1-6]. There has been a growing interest in the study of mathematical models of populations dispersing among patches in the nature world [3,7-9]. In the classical predator-prey models it is usually assumed that each individual predator admits the same ability to feed on prey. However, it is different for some species...

Cannibalistic and asymmetrical behavioral interactions between stages are common within stage-structured predator populations. Such direct interactions between predator stages can result in density- and trait-mediated indirect interactions between a predator and its prey. A set of structured predator-prey models is used to explore how such indirect interactions affect the dynamics and structure...

Although cannibalism is ubiquitous in food webs and frequent in systems where a predator and its prey also share a common resource (intraguild predation, IGP), its impacts on species interactions and the dynamics and structure of communities are still poorly understood. In addition, the few existing studies on cannibalism have generally focused on cannibalism in the top-predator, ignoring that ...

Studies of phenotypic plasticity frequently demonstrate functional trade-offs between alternative phenotypes by documenting environment-specific costs and benefits. However, the functional mechanisms underlying these trade-offs are often unknown. For example, predator-induced traits typically provide superior predator resistance but slower growth, while competitor-induced traits provide better ...

Extreme habitats are often characterized by reduced predation pressures, thus representing refuges for the inhabiting species. The present study was designed to investigate predator avoidance of extremophile populations of Poecilia mexicana and P. sulphuraria that either live in hydrogen sulfide-rich (sulfidic) springs or cave habitats, both of which are known to have impoverished piscine preda...

Mathematical models of predator-prey interactions in a patchy landscape are used to explore the evolution of dispersal into sink habitats. When evolution proceeds at a single trophic level (i.e., either prey or predator disperses), three evolutionary outcomes are observed. If predator-prey dynamics are stable in source habitats, then there is an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) correspondin...

Many studies have demonstrated that the nonconsumptive effect (NCE) of predators on prey traits can alter prey demographics in ways that are just as strong as the consumptive effect (CE) of predators. Less well studied, however, is how the CE and NCE of multiple predator species can interact to influence the combined effect of multiple predators on prey mortality. We examined the extent to whic...

A common predator or anti-predator strategy involves camouflage based on background matching. In some systems, the background is an organism whose fitness is affected by the predator-prey interaction. In these cases, the phenotype of the background species may evolve to affect the degree of background matching in the predator-prey interaction. For example, some flower species (the background) a...