Hi Folks-
In the course of some recent work, I've come across several
apparently inter-related terms. I'm curious to know if people with
experience with these issues agree with the following definitions or if
you'd care to offer alternatives. My main interest is in learning of how
others address the differences between swamping and buffering.
Also, if anyone is familiar with a published source that brings
these concepts and terms under a single cover, I'd love to hear about it.
Cheers.
Michael Cooperman
Synchronized (prey) behaviors -- when the individuals of 1 or several
populations all execute a key event at the same time (i.e.,
synchronisity of hatching dates, timing of juvenile dispersal
migrations, etc.). "Predator swamping" is often invoked as the selective
force for this synchronous behavior, although empirical evidence for
this mechanism is lacking.
Predator swamping -- when a population of a prey species increases its
overall survival via overwhelming the predator field (either via
satiation or reduced encounter rates). This is a 2 species system
(predator and prey).
Prey Buffering -- when 1 prey species gains an advantage via the actions
of a 2nd prey species upon a common predator (i.e., loses of a rare prey
species decreases as the abundance of a more common prey species
increases because the common predator keys on the more common prey).
(This is a 3 species system; 2 prey, 1 predator).
Prey switching -- a concept related to the foraging selectivity of
predators, consistent with optimal foraging theory. In this case, an
individual of a prey species may gain an advantage by being "early" as
the predators have not yet keyed on that species as prey.
