An Ecosystem Model with Evolutionary Adaptive Trophic Structure

Underwood, Philip (2013) An Ecosystem Model with Evolutionary Adaptive Trophic Structure. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

We live in an era of rapid change in ecosystems and their environ-
ments, that all scales up to the global. The contemporary view is that
the interactions between life and the environment are bidirectional: the
environment creates life and life creates the environment. However,
most ecosystem models have an inbuilt rigidity such that the degrees to
which they can mimic structural change in response to environmental
cues is very limited. In an effort to capture the plasticity of life we
present a new theoretical individual-based ecosystem model in the con-
text of previous classical and experimental modelling approaches. The
aim is to develop a deeper understanding of the factors determining
trophic structure. The individual-based approach permits the inclusion
of traits to model heritable attributes. Population-level models imple-
ment a mean-�eld approximation that led to the competitive exclustion
principle. The addition of a trait to de�ne speci�c feeding strategy
permits the model exploration of this problem. Life history theory pre-
dicts that reduced juvenile mortality selects for delayed maturity and
decreased reproductive effort, and reduced adult mortality will select
for the opposite. Through the inclusion of a different trait to represent
relative parental investment in offspring, we explore the predictions of
life history theory and hypotheses for clutch size.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Users 2259 not found.
Date Deposited:	11 Jun 2014 13:43
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2014 13:43
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/48709
DOI:

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