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Green world maintained by adaptation

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Abstract

An ecological theory (HSS hypothesis) predicts that carnivores maintain the terrestrial ecosystem with abundant plants (green world) by regulating herbivore abundance. However, a weak density dependence of herbivores will make the equilibrium unstable and results in population oscillations with a large amplitude. Here, we study a possibility that the dynamics can be stabilized if defence trait by herbivores and offence trait by carnivores change in an adaptive manner. When the cost constraints on adaptation are strong in both the herbivores and the carnivores, the equilibrium is more likely to be stable if the herbivore adapts more quickly than the carnivore. When the constraints on the adaptation are asymmetric between species, the equilibrium is likely to be unstable. We conclude that the green world may be maintained by fast and costly adaptation by the herbivore through mechanisms such as phenotypic plasticity and behavioural change. Plant defence which is poisonous and prickly has been proposed as one of explanations, however, world can be green through adaptation in higher trophic levels even without plant’s defence.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to P. A. Abrams, S. P. Ellner and K. Uriu for their valuable advice on this study. This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for a Research Fellow from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and a Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (no. 20*01655) to A. M. and by a Grant-in-Aid (B) to Y. I.

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  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Kyushu University, Hakozaki 6-10-1, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8581, Japan

    Akihiko Mougi & Yoh Iwasa

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  1. Akihiko Mougi
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  2. Yoh Iwasa
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Correspondence to Akihiko Mougi.

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Appendix: Stability analysis (DOC 120 kb)

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Mougi, A., Iwasa, Y. Green world maintained by adaptation. Theor Ecol 4, 201–210 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12080-011-0114-4

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