Minus van Baalen

Thesis introduction

Figure 3

Figure 3 Differences in patch quality (a) leading to uneven spatial distributions (b) when prey and predators adopt evolutionarily stable patch selection strategies. Such uneven spatial distributions are necessary to lead to a stable population dynamical equilibrium (as shown in Fig. 2). If differences in patch quality are less, it pays prey to avoid the high-prey-density patch—resulting in a more even distribution of the prey. Then natural selection will favour predators that aggregate less strongly—and unstable dynamics of the type of Fig. 1 result.

[Figure 2] [Back] [Figure 4]