BISC 204 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Optimal Foraging Theory, Crypsis, Herbivore
10 Oct 2017
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Document Summary
Foraging ecology: all organisms are consumers and victims of consumers. Consumers can be classified into groups characterized by the ways that each uses resources to obtain energy for their own growth and reproduction. Predators: capture, kill and remove prey from populations. Parasites: consumes part of their hosts, usually don"t kill hosts directly. Parasitoids: wasps and flies whose larvae consume the tissues of living hosts usually. Cannibalism: ending in death of the host upon pupation. Detritivores and scavengers: consume the tissues of dead organisms. Indirect feedbacks: adaptations of consumers for exploiting their prey, dentition, digestion, morphology (especially of jaws, behavior. Bisc 204: example of prey body size versus body size of mammalian predators, prey have adaptations for escaping their predators, crypsis, chemical defense, mimicry of noxious organisms. Oak leaves have tannis acid wich reduce availability of plant proteins to consumers, inhibit digestion. Interfere with specific animal metabolism pathways, physiology, palatability.
