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Top-down pulses reduce prey population sizes and persistence

Resource pulses are well documented and have important consequences for population dynamics relative to continuous inputs. However, pulses of top-down factors (e.g. predation) are less explored and appreciated in the ecological literature. Here, we use a simple differential equation population model...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hamman, Elizabeth A., McCoy, Michael W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6008325/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29921899
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27661-1
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author Hamman, Elizabeth A.
McCoy, Michael W.
author_facet Hamman, Elizabeth A.
McCoy, Michael W.
author_sort Hamman, Elizabeth A.
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description Resource pulses are well documented and have important consequences for population dynamics relative to continuous inputs. However, pulses of top-down factors (e.g. predation) are less explored and appreciated in the ecological literature. Here, we use a simple differential equation population model to show how pulsed removals of individuals from a population alter population size relative to continuous dynamics. Pulsed removals result in lower equilibrium population sizes relative to continuous removals, and the differences are greatest at low population growth rates, high removal rates, and with large, infrequent pulses. Furthermore, the timing of the removal pulses (either stochastic or cyclic) affects population size. For example, cyclic removals are less likely than stochastic removals to result in population eradication, but when eradication occurs, the time until eradication is shorter for cyclic than with stochastic removals.
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spelling pubmed-60083252018-06-26 Top-down pulses reduce prey population sizes and persistence Hamman, Elizabeth A. McCoy, Michael W. Sci Rep Article Resource pulses are well documented and have important consequences for population dynamics relative to continuous inputs. However, pulses of top-down factors (e.g. predation) are less explored and appreciated in the ecological literature. Here, we use a simple differential equation population model to show how pulsed removals of individuals from a population alter population size relative to continuous dynamics. Pulsed removals result in lower equilibrium population sizes relative to continuous removals, and the differences are greatest at low population growth rates, high removal rates, and with large, infrequent pulses. Furthermore, the timing of the removal pulses (either stochastic or cyclic) affects population size. For example, cyclic removals are less likely than stochastic removals to result in population eradication, but when eradication occurs, the time until eradication is shorter for cyclic than with stochastic removals. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC6008325/ /pubmed/29921899 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27661-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Hamman, Elizabeth A.
McCoy, Michael W.
Top-down pulses reduce prey population sizes and persistence
title Top-down pulses reduce prey population sizes and persistence
title_full Top-down pulses reduce prey population sizes and persistence
title_fullStr Top-down pulses reduce prey population sizes and persistence
title_full_unstemmed Top-down pulses reduce prey population sizes and persistence
title_short Top-down pulses reduce prey population sizes and persistence
title_sort top-down pulses reduce prey population sizes and persistence
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6008325/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29921899
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27661-1
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