Carbone Chris, Codron Daryl, Scofield Conrad, Clauss Marcus, Bielby Jon
Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4RY, UK.
Ecol Lett. 2014 Dec;17(12):1553-9. doi: 10.1111/ele.12375. Epub 2014 Sep 30.
Predator-prey relationships are vital to ecosystem function and there is a need for greater predictive understanding of these interactions. We develop a geometric foraging model predicting minimum prey size scaling in marine and terrestrial vertebrate predators taking into account habitat dimensionality and biological traits. Our model predicts positive predator-prey size relationships on land but negative relationships in the sea. To test the model, we compiled data on diets of 794 predators (mammals, snakes, sharks and rays). Consistent with predictions, both terrestrial endotherm and ectotherm predators have significantly positive predator-prey size relationships. Marine predators, however, exhibit greater variation. Some of the largest predators specialise on small invertebrates while others are large vertebrate specialists. Prey-predator mass ratios were generally higher for ectothermic than endothermic predators, although dietary patterns were similar. Model-based simulations of predator-prey relationships were consistent with observed relationships, suggesting that our approach provides insights into both trends and diversity in predator-prey interactions.
捕食者与猎物的关系对生态系统功能至关重要，因此需要对这些相互作用有更强的预测性理解。我们开发了一种几何觅食模型，该模型在考虑栖息地维度和生物特征的情况下，预测海洋和陆地脊椎动物捕食者的最小猎物尺寸缩放情况。我们的模型预测，在陆地上捕食者与猎物的尺寸关系为正相关，而在海洋中则为负相关。为了验证该模型，我们收集了794种捕食者（哺乳动物、蛇、鲨鱼和鳐鱼）的饮食数据。与预测结果一致，陆地恒温动物和变温动物捕食者的捕食者与猎物尺寸关系均呈显著正相关。然而，海洋捕食者表现出更大的变异性。一些最大的捕食者专门捕食小型无脊椎动物，而其他捕食者则专门捕食大型脊椎动物。尽管饮食模式相似，但变温动物捕食者的猎物与捕食者质量比通常高于恒温动物捕食者。基于模型的捕食者与猎物关系模拟与观察到的关系一致，这表明我们的方法为捕食者与猎物相互作用的趋势和多样性提供了见解。
