Comparing the effects of rapidly induced and rapidly evolving traits on predator-prey interactions

Series
Mathematical Biology Seminar
Time
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - 11:00am for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 168
Speaker
Michael Cortez – School of Biology, Georgia Tech
Organizer
Leonid Bunimovich
Interactions between trophic levels are influenced not only by species abundances, but also by the behavioral, life history, morphological traits of the interacting species as well. Adaptive changes in these traits can be heritable or plastic in nature and both yield phenotypic change that occurs as fast as changes in population abundances. I present how fast-slow systems theory can be used to understand the effects rapid adaptation has on community dynamics in predator-prey systems. This analysis emphasizes that heritable and plastic traits have different effects on community dynamics.