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Effect Of Prey Richness On A Consumer’S Intrinsic Growth Rate, Brian J. Darby, Michael A. Herman
Effect Of Prey Richness On A Consumer’S Intrinsic Growth Rate, Brian J. Darby, Michael A. Herman
School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications
The intrinsic growth rate of nonselective microbivores increases asymptotically with increasing prey biomass, but we do not know how intrinsic growth rate is affected by prey richness. The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of prey richness on the growth kinetics of nematode predators while grazing on mixed bacterial lawns. We found that the intrinsic growth rate of Caenorhabditis elegans in laboratory culture increased asymptotically with prey richness. The mechanism of this pattern was primarily due to the best available prey species in the mixture: the intrinsic growth rate of the consumer feeding on a mixture of …