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Quantifying Predator Functional Responses Under Field Conditions Reveals Interactive Effects Of Temperature And Interference With Sex And Stage, Kyle E. Coblentz, Amber Squires, Stella Uiterwaal, John Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

1. Predator functional responses describe predator feeding rates and are central to predator–prey theory. Originally defined as the relationship between predator feeding rates and prey densities, it is now well known that functional responses are shaped by a multitude of factors. However, much of our knowledge about how these factors influence functional responses is based on laboratory studies that are generally logistically constrained to examining only a few factors simultaneously and that have unclear links to the conditions organisms experience in the field.
2. We apply an observational approach for measuring functional responses to understand how sex/stage differences, temperature and predator densities …