Why study the dynamics of predator/prey relationships ?
Intrinsically interesting in providing insight into the stability of natural systems. But, also implication for successful management of human activities involved in exploiting natural resources. The idea of managed harvesting is to maximize the crop yield (i.e. prey intake), while insuring that the prey does not go extinct. From examples of our theoretical assessment of predator/prey cycling we found that coexistence is influenced by: -refugia -density-dependent effects on prey and predator – switching Unfortunately human attempts at conscious balancing to insure neither overexploitation nor under exploitation has not had a good record e.g. collapse of cod fishery in North Atlantic. Idea: Reducing population size will generally affect life-expectancy and fecundity of organisms. However, How the population size is reduced is important is important to how population responses in number over time. Controlled lab experiments showing density-dependent limitations on population growth also
