The effect of resource aggregation at different scales: optimal foraging behavior of Cotesia rubecula

The American Naturalist
B TenhumbergH P Possingham

Abstract

Resources can be aggregated both within and between patches. In this article, we examine how aggregation at these different scales influences the behavior and performance of foragers. We developed an optimal foraging model of the foraging behavior of the parasitoid wasp Cotesia rubecula parasitizing the larvae of the cabbage butterfly Pieris rapae. The optimal behavior was found using stochastic dynamic programming. The most interesting and novel result is that the effect of resource aggregation within and between patches depends on the degree of aggregation both within and between patches as well as on the local host density in the occupied patch, but lifetime reproductive success depends only on aggregation within patches. Our findings have profound implications for the way in which we measure heterogeneity at different scales and model the response of organisms to spatial heterogeneity.

References

Apr 1, 1976·Theoretical Population Biology·E L Charnov
Feb 10, 2000·Journal of Theoretical Biology·B TenhumbergB Roitberg
Mar 1, 1996·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·S L Lima, P A Zollner

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Citations

Jan 17, 2008·The American Naturalist·Tom E X MillerSvata M Louda
Aug 8, 2015·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Lorenzo CattarinoJonathan R Rhodes
Jun 1, 2005·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Diana E Bowler, Tim G Benton

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