2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Interplay between co-evolution and population dynamics in the predator - prey relationship in the island environments
| Project/Area Number |
15H04426
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
Ecology/Environment
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Toho University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
|
|---|
| Research Collaborator |
KURIYAMA Takeo
BRANDLEY Matthew
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
|
| Keywords | 捕食者 / 被食者 / 個体群動態 / 島嶼 |
|---|
| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
We demonstrated that evolution of predator avoidance by prey enhance rapid predator color pattern evolution in the predator snake and prey lizard system in the insular environments. We then showed that rapid evolution of color pattern affected population dynamics of predator and prey, and pervasively fed back to modulate predator gape size. On the island where the snake is monotypic in color pattern, prey-predator populations exhibited the short 5-6 year cycles. Whereas the cycles were extended to 10-15 years on the island where the snakes were color polymorphic, and negative frequency dependent selection through predator avoidance learning by lizard maintained snake color polymorphism. Oscillation of predator-prey density temporally changed strength of selective force acting on snake gape size, and decreased availability of lizard prey favored wider gape and vice versa during the density cycles.
|
| Free Research Field |
進化生態学
|
