Trophic interactions drive the emergence of diel vertical migration patterns: a game-theoretic model of copepod communities.

ABSTRACT: Diel vertical migration (DVM), the daily movement of organisms through oceanic water columns, is mainly driven by spatio-temporal variations in the light affecting the intensity of predator-prey interactions. Migration patterns of an organism are intrinsically linked to the distribution of its conspecifics, its prey and its predators, each with their own fitness-seeking imperatives. We present a mechanistic, trait-based model of DVM for the different components of a pelagic community. Specifically, we consider size, sensory mode and feeding mode as key traits, representing a community of copepods that prey on each other and are, in turn, preyed upon by fish. Using game-theoretic principles, we explore the optimal distribution of the main groups of a planktonic pelagic food web simultaneous

SUBMITTER: Pinti J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6784719 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature