Since the mid-20th century, ecologists have been studying how the availability of prey affects the rate at which predators kill and consume it. Depending on the animals and the ecosystem, predators do tend to consume more prey as more of it becomes available—but often only to a point, beyond which that consumption rate levels off.
October 13, 2022
Since the mid-20th century, ecologists have been studying how the availability of prey affects the rate at which predators kill and consume it. Depending on the animals and the ecosystem, predators do tend to consume more prey as more of it becomes available—but often only to a point, beyond which that consumption rate levels off.
With temperatures trending upward across much of the world, ecologists are also keen to understand how global warming might sway the predator-prey dynamics that have emerged over thousands of years. Because rising temperatures speed the metabolism that fuels movement, which in turn drives predator-prey encounters, many ecologists have predicted that prey consumption will increase more-or-less in tandem with temperature.
