Food Quantity–Quality Interactions and Their Impact on Consumer Behavior and Trophic Transfer

Abstract

Interactions between predator and prey species play a crucial role in defining nutrient and energy cycling in food webs. Most consumers experience frequent changes in food quantity and quality which impact their fitness. We assessed how consumers regulate their feeding behavior and digestive physiology in a new fitness-optimization model. Our results reveal that food quantity and quality show strong interactions in shaping consumer responses such as feeding, recycling, and growth rates. Our analysis shows that the inclusion of regulatory flexibility of consumers improves predictions of predator–prey dynamics and nutrient flows in food webs. Photo credit: Ole F. Nielsen. This photograph illustrates the article “Food quantity–quality interactions and their impact on consumer behavior and trophic transfer” by Alfred Burian, Jens M. Nielsen, and Monika Winder published in Ecological Monographs. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.1395