Luttbeg Barney, Kerby Jacob L
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2005 Aug;20(8):416-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2005.05.006.
Predators affect prey and their resources by changing the density and traits (e.g. morphology and behavior) of those prey. Ecological studies and models of community dynamics, however, typically only incorporate how changes in prey densities, rather than their traits, affect community dynamics. In a recent meta-analysis, Preisser et al. show that trait effects are as large, if not larger than density effects. This strongly suggests that trait effects should be integrated into empirical and theoretical studies.
捕食者通过改变猎物的密度和特征（如形态和行为）来影响猎物及其资源。然而，生态学研究和群落动态模型通常只考虑猎物密度的变化如何影响群落动态，而不是其特征的变化。在最近的一项荟萃分析中，普雷瑟等人表明，特征效应即使不比密度效应大，也与密度效应相当。这强烈表明，特征效应应纳入实证研究和理论研究之中。
