Applications of consumer-resource models in ecology and evolution

大多数自然群落由分布在斑块状景观上的食物网组成。预测任何一个物种的命运都需要了解以下两个方面：(1)斑块内捕食者-猎物（消费者-资源）相互作用的集合；(2)斑块间运动的性质。这两个过程都对自然种群如何应对环境变化（包括人类增加的收成、气候变化和引入的物种）产生重大影响。这两个过程相互作用，因为生物在斑块之间的移动通常受到出生率和死亡率的影响，而出生率和死亡率又在很大程度上取决于消费者-资源的相互作用。该研究将使用数学模型来帮助建立理解这种相互作用的定量基础。它将首先利用分布在不同景观中的相互作用的物种集的数学模型来探索运动行为的进化。由此产生的对运动的理解将被纳入描述栖息地斑块内物种相互作用的模型中。各种不同的运动行为可能在不同的生态环境中得到青睐，并且将分析具有这种运动行为的各种不同的食物网。目标将是确定适应性运动和食物网相互作用的组合如何改变焦点物种对其环境中可能发生的各种变化的进化和生态反应。这包括物理和化学条件的变化，死亡率的改变，以及与焦点物种相互作用的捕食者、竞争对手或其他物种的丰度的改变。研究结果将有助于解释为什么高度简化的模型与复杂的模拟模型相比，对生态系统未来变化的预测往往大相径庭。

Most natural communities consist of food webs distributed across a patchy landscape. Predicting the fate of any one species requires an understanding of both: (1) the set of predator-prey (consumer-resource) interactions within patches; and (2) the nature of movement between patches. Both processes have major effects on how natural populations respond to environmental changes, including increased harvest by humans, climate change, and introduced species. The two processes interact, because movement of organisms between patches is generally influenced by birth and death rates, which are in turn determined largely by consumer-resource interactions. The proposed research will use mathematical models help to build a quantitative basis for understanding this interaction. It will do so by first exploring the evolution of movement behaviour using mathematical models of interacting sets of species distributed across a varied landscape. The resulting understanding of movement will be incorporated into models that describe the interaction of species within habitat patches. A variety of different movement behaviours are likely to be favoured in different ecological circumstances, and a variety of different food webs with such movement behaviours will be analyzed. The goal will be to determine how the combination of adaptive movement and food web interactions alters the evolutionary and ecological responses of a focal species to a variety of changes that may occur in its environment. This includes changes in physical and chemical conditions, altered mortality, and altered abundances of predators, competitors, or other species with which the focal species interacts. The results will help explain why highly simplified models have often produced very different predictions about future changes in ecological systems than have complex simulation models.