DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Effect of Predator and Prey Spatial Scales on Stability in a Rosenzweig-MacArthur Framework

猎物与捕食者和相互竞争的物种群落相互作用，必须平衡收集资源和避免被吃掉这两个相互冲突的需求。对资源竞争和捕食之间的相互作用用钻石食物网进行了总结，在钻石食物网中，一个捕食者以共享同一资源的两种不同类型的猎物为食。基于混合良好的非空间系统的当前生态学理论的预测常常与实验结果相矛盾。这项拟议的研究结合了微分方程和模拟模型，研究了捕食者和捕食者利用空间的差异对捕食和竞争之间相互作用的影响。这项研究将集中在捕食者和猎物使用或防御的地点大小的差异如何影响共存，以及猎物分组对资源利用和捕食者回避之间平衡的影响。它建立在目前关于空间对简单捕食-被捕食相互作用的影响、地点之间的差异的影响以及捕食对良好混合系统中的资源竞争的影响的理论的基础上。这项拟议的研究的智力价值在于，它将向生物学家提供关于捕食者和猎物空间尺度和分布的差异对群落动态具有重要影响的条件。这项研究的广泛影响将产生软件包和其他教育好处。

Prey interact with their predators and a community of competing species, and must balance the conflicting needs of gathering resources and avoiding being eaten. The interaction between competition for resources and predation is summarized using a diamond food web, where one predator feeds on two alternative types of prey sharing a common resource. Predictions from current ecological theory, based on well-mixed, non-spatial systems, often contradict experimental results. The proposed research examines the effect of differences in the use of space by the prey and predator on the interaction between predation and competition using a combination of differential equation and simulation models. The research will focus on how coexistence is affected by differences in the size of sites used or defended by predators and prey, and the influence of prey grouping on the balance between resource utilization and predator avoidance. It builds on current research concerning the effect of space on simple predator-prey interactions, the effect of differences between sites and the theory of the effect of predation on resource competition in well-mixed systems. The proposed research's intellectual merit is that it will inform biologists about the conditions under which differences in predator and prey spatial scales and distributions are important to community dynamics. The broad impact of this research will produce software package and other educational benefits.