Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Effects of fisheries on ecosystems: just another top predator?
- 3 Physical forcing in the southwest Atlantic: ecosystem control
- 4 The use of biologically meaningful oceanographic indices to separate the effects of climate and fisheries on seabird breeding success
- 5 Linking predator foraging behaviour and diet with variability in continental shelf ecosystems: grey seals of eastern Canada
- 6 Distribution and foraging interactions of seabirds and marine mammals in the North Sea: multispecies foraging assemblages and habitat-specific feeding strategies
- 7 Spatial and temporal variation in the diets of polar bears across the Canadian Arctic: indicators of changes in prey populations and environment
- 8 Biophysical influences on seabird trophic assessments
- 9 Consequences of prey distribution for the foraging behaviour of top predators
- 10 Identifying drivers of change: did fisheries play a role in the spread of North Atlantic fulmars?
- 11 Monitoring predator–prey interactions using multiple predator species: the South Georgia experience
- 12 Impacts of oceanography on the foraging dynamics of seabirds in the North Sea
- 13 Foraging energetics of North Sea birds confronted with fluctuating prey availability
- 14 How many fish should we leave in the sea for seabirds and marine mammals?
- 15 Does the prohibition of industrial fishing for sandeels have any impact on local gadoid populations?
- 16 Use of gannets to monitor prey availability in the northeast Atlantic Ocean: colony size, diet and foraging behaviour
- 17 Population dynamics of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba at South Georgia: sampling with predators provides new insights
- 18 The functional response of generalist predators and its implications for the monitoring of marine ecosystems
- 19 The method of multiple hypotheses and the decline of Steller sea lions in western Alaska
- 20 Modelling the behaviour of individuals and groups of animals foraging in heterogeneous environments
- 21 The Scenario Barents Sea study: a case of minimal realistic modelling to compare management strategies for marine ecosystems
- 22 Setting management goals using information from predators
- 23 Marine reserves and higher predators
- 24 Marine management: can objectives be set for marine top predators?
- Index
- References
20 - Modelling the behaviour of individuals and groups of animals foraging in heterogeneous environments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 July 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Effects of fisheries on ecosystems: just another top predator?
- 3 Physical forcing in the southwest Atlantic: ecosystem control
- 4 The use of biologically meaningful oceanographic indices to separate the effects of climate and fisheries on seabird breeding success
- 5 Linking predator foraging behaviour and diet with variability in continental shelf ecosystems: grey seals of eastern Canada
- 6 Distribution and foraging interactions of seabirds and marine mammals in the North Sea: multispecies foraging assemblages and habitat-specific feeding strategies
- 7 Spatial and temporal variation in the diets of polar bears across the Canadian Arctic: indicators of changes in prey populations and environment
- 8 Biophysical influences on seabird trophic assessments
- 9 Consequences of prey distribution for the foraging behaviour of top predators
- 10 Identifying drivers of change: did fisheries play a role in the spread of North Atlantic fulmars?
- 11 Monitoring predator–prey interactions using multiple predator species: the South Georgia experience
- 12 Impacts of oceanography on the foraging dynamics of seabirds in the North Sea
- 13 Foraging energetics of North Sea birds confronted with fluctuating prey availability
- 14 How many fish should we leave in the sea for seabirds and marine mammals?
- 15 Does the prohibition of industrial fishing for sandeels have any impact on local gadoid populations?
- 16 Use of gannets to monitor prey availability in the northeast Atlantic Ocean: colony size, diet and foraging behaviour
- 17 Population dynamics of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba at South Georgia: sampling with predators provides new insights
- 18 The functional response of generalist predators and its implications for the monitoring of marine ecosystems
- 19 The method of multiple hypotheses and the decline of Steller sea lions in western Alaska
- 20 Modelling the behaviour of individuals and groups of animals foraging in heterogeneous environments
- 21 The Scenario Barents Sea study: a case of minimal realistic modelling to compare management strategies for marine ecosystems
- 22 Setting management goals using information from predators
- 23 Marine reserves and higher predators
- 24 Marine management: can objectives be set for marine top predators?
- Index
- References
Summary
We present an individual-based model of an animal that forages in a spatially explicit environment for food which it uses to maintain itself. The model subsumes optimal foraging theory as a special case of a general dynamical theory of foraging, capable of predicting both the transient behaviour and the steady-state behaviour of the forager in heterogeneous environments that vary with time. It also predicts aspects of the social structuring of populations of competing foragers, and can do so in environments containing food that is ingested continuously or as individual particles. The model has been elaborated to represent the collection of food by diving seabirds, treating the collection of oxygen between dives as the collection of a second nutrient from a continuous patch. The models provide the basic building blocks of individual-based models of populations of animals which can predict the spatial disposition of populations of animals in environments in which the resources necessary for life are not uniformly distributed.
In order to understand the relationship between the spatial distribution of animals and the spatial distribution of their food supply, it is insufficient simply to assume that there will be a correlation between the standing crop of prey and the standing crop of the predators that feed on it. What matters to the individual animal is availability of food, and that will be determined by its own biological properties and the biological properties of its prey.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Top Predators in Marine EcosystemsTheir Role in Monitoring and Management, pp. 294 - 309Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
References
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