Cross-feeding is the exchange of nutrients among species of microbes. It has two potential evolutionary origins, one as an exchange of metabolic wastes or byproducts among species, the other as a form of cooperation known as reciprocal altruism. This paper explores the conditions favoring the origin of cooperative cross-feeding between two species. There is an extensive literature on the evolut...

Traditionally, differential-equation models for population dynamics have considered organisms as “fixed” entities in terms of their behaviour and characteristics. However, there have been many observations of adaptivity in organisms, both at the level of behaviour and as an evolutionary change of traits, in response to the environmental conditions. Taking such adaptiveness into account alters t...

Supplementary feeding stations, or "vulture restaurants", are common conservation management tools. While a number of studies have investigated the consequences of surplus food on the population dynamics of scavengers, relatively little is known about the effects of such practices at the individual level. Within the long-term monitored breeding population of Canarian Egyptian vultures (Neophron...

Recent years have seen a marked increase in our awareness of the need to incorporate greater physiological realism into studies of parasitoid behaviour and population dynamics. Quanti¢cation of the number of eggs produced as a result of a host-feeding event, the host-feeding gain, is essential for predicting when a parasitoid should bypass an opportunity for current reproduction (i.e. laying eg...

Although the motor control of feeding is presumed to be generally conserved, some fishes are capable of modulating the feeding behaviour in response to prey type and or prey size. This led to the 'feeding modulation hypothesis', which states that rapid suction strikes are pre-programmed stereotyped events that proceed to completion once initiated regardless of sensory input. If this hypothesis ...

Formation and dynamics of an Al(OH)3 precipitation ring is studied by diffusing NaOH into a gel containing AlCl3. Limited feeding of the outer electrolyte (NaOH) is found to yield an intricate ring-dynamics which involves stopping and reversal of the direction of motion of the precipitation ring, and evolution into stationary multi-ring structures. A model of the ring-dynamics is developed by c...

Just like the Zika-Virus, malaria is a vector-borne disease with three interacting population components. These are the parasite component, the vector component and the human component. The behavioral dynamics of each of these components play an integral role in the transmission dynamics of malaria. For example, there is a reproductive gain that accrue to the mosquito’s population as a result o...