Print PagePredator-prey and disease dynamics have long been studied in theoretical ecology. Recent empirical studies of Daphnia and their parasites have revealed direct interactions between consumer-producer and epidemiological processes that have yet to be addressed in the modeling literature. To bridge this gap, we present results for a general class of predator-prey-disease models based on the Daphnia-parasite system. We ask: How do these prey-mediated epidemiological processes affect the dynamics relative to models that exclude these direct interactions?
Results/Conclusions
Our results show that these prey-mediated epidemiological processes can significantly affect predator-prey-disease dynamics, particularly under cycling regimes, seasonal forcing, and transient dynamics. We also present general analytical results that suggest how to predict whether the inclusion of these direct dependencies will have a stabilizing or destabilizing effect on the system, relative to models that omit them.
