BIOL 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Daphnia, Behavioral Ecology, Population Ecology

• School: McGill University
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIOL 111
• Professor: Andrew Hendry , Elena Melania Cristescu , Anna Lesley Hargreaves

Document Summary

Ecology: study of interactions between organisms and their environment. Standard prediction of foraging theory: animals should eat foods that maximize their energy intake. 1. abundance of different prey types (maybe the best food type is quite rare in the environment) 2. catchability of different prey types (maybe certain types are harder to get) 3. quality of different prey types (what is in that food) Example at how bears interact with salmon: bears got lot of food before hibernation, but the salmon vary in quality (it gives more energy when it first enters the water than before their death) Predictions: bears should eat the newest arrive, most energy-rich salmon. But salmon vary between deep environment (beach, lake ) or very shallow environment where they are much easier to catch. Therefore, the prediction is true but only in places where the catching is easy (in deep sea, they would grab fishes that are almost dead).