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A Micro-Level 'Consumer Approach' to Species Population Dynamics

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Author Info
Thomas Christiaans ()
Thomas Eichner ()
Rüdiger Pethig ()

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Abstract

In this paper we develop a micro ecosystem model whose basic entities are representative organisms which behave as if maximizing their net offspring under constraints. Net offspring is increasing in prey biomass intake, declining in the loss of own biomass to predators and Allee’s Law applies. The organism’s constraint reflects its perception of how scarce its own biomass and the biomass of its prey is. In the short-run periods prices (scarcity indicators) coordinate and determine all biomass transactions and net offspring which directly translates into population growth functions. We are able to explicitly determine these growth functions for a simple food web when specific parametric net offspring functions are chosen in the micro-level ecosystem model. For the case of a single species our model is shown to yield the well-known Verhulst-Pearl logistic growth function. With two species in predator-prey relationship, we derive differential equations whose dynamics are completely characterized and turn out to be similar to the predator-prey model with Michaelis-Menten type functional response. With two species competing for a single resource we find that coexistence is a knife-edge feature confirming Tschirhart’s (2002) result in a different but related model.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number CESifo Working Paper No. 1530.

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Date of creation: 2005
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1530

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Related research
Keywords: species; growth; extinction; predator-prey relations; resource competition;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
Q20 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - General

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References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Thomas Eichner & Ruediger Pethig, 2003. "A Microfoundation of Predator-Prey Dynamics," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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  2. David Finnoff & John Tschirhart, 2003. "Protecting an Endangered Species While Harvesting Its Prey in a General Equilibrium Ecosystem Model," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 79(2), pages 160-180. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Thomas Crocker & John Tschirhart, 1992. "Ecosystems, externalities, and economies," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(6), pages 551-567, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Finnoff, David & Tschirhart, John, 2003. "Harvesting in an eight-species ecosystem," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 589-611, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Eichner, Thomas & Pethig, Rudiger, 2006. "Economic land use, ecosystem services and microfounded species dynamics," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 707-720, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. John Tschirhart, 2003. "Ecological Transfers in Non-Human Communities Parallel Economic Markets in a General Equilibrium Ecosystem Model," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 193-214, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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