Summary
Three mechanisms by which increasing predation can increase prey population density are discussed: (1) Additional predation on species which have negative effects on the prey; (2) Predation on consumer species whose relationship with their own prey is characterized by a unimodal prey isocline; (3) Predation on species which adaptively balance predation risk and food intake while foraging. Possible reasons are discussed for the rarity of positive effects in previous predator-manipulation studies; these include the short-term nature of experiments, the large magnitudes of predator density manipulation, and various sources of bias in choice of system and interpretation of results.
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Abrams, P.A. Why don't predators have positive effects on prey populations?. Evol Ecol 6, 449–457 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02270691
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02270691