BIOL 1001 Study Guide - Final Guide: Adaptive Radiation, Speciation, Snowshoe Hare
Document Summary
Snowshoe hares are herbivores and lynx are predator and eat snowshoe hare. Food shortages, predation or disease intensify at high density and cause population numbers to crash. Two hypotheses for hare-lynx cycle based on density-dependent factors. Hares use all their food when their populations reach high density and starve; in response; lynx starve. Lynx populations reach high density in response to increase in hare density. At high density, lynx eat many hares that prey population crashes. Hare control lynx population size or lynx control hare population size. The cycle could be controlled by intraspecific competition or interspecific interactions. Hare populations are limited by availability of food as well as by predation and that food availability and predation intensity interact- combined effect of food and predation is much larger than impact in isolation. When hares are at high density; individuals are weakened by nutritional stress and are more susceptible to predation.
