Consumer–resource interactions

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Consumer–resource interactions are the core motif of ecological

photons
) or chemical sources. Species higher up in the food chain survive by consuming other species and can be classified by what they eat and how they obtain or find their food.

Classification of consumer types

The standard categorization

Various terms have arisen to define consumers by what they eat, such as meat-eating

feeding behaviors exists.[citation needed
]

The Getz categorization

Wayne Getz's consumer categories are based on material eaten (plant: green live, brown dead; animal: red live, purple dead; or particulate: grey) and feeding strategy (gatherer: lighter shades; miner: darker shades).[4]

Another way of categorizing consumers, proposed by South African American ecologist Wayne Getz, is based on a biomass transformation web (BTW) formulation that organizes resources into five components: live and dead animal, live and dead plant, and particulate (i.e. broken down plant and animal) matter.[4] It also distinguishes between consumers that gather their resources by moving across landscapes from those that mine their resources by becoming sessile once they have located a stock of resources large enough for them to feed on during completion of a full life history stage.

In Getz's scheme, words for miners are of Greek etymology and words for gatherers are of Latin etymology. Thus a bestivore, such as a cat, preys on live animals (Latin: bestia=animal) while a sarcophage, such as a

pillbugs mine piles of dead plant material. Carnivore and herbivore are generic multigroup categories for gathers respectively of animal and plant material, irrespective of whether live or dead. Croppers, scavengers, and detritivores are gatherers respectively of live, dead, and particulate material. Parasites, saprophages, and decomposers are miners respectively of live, dead, and particulate material.[4]

Specialist totivores (gatherers)

Specialist olophages (miners)

See also

References

  1. S2CID 2249052
    .
  2. ISBN 9781400847259
    .
  3. ISBN 9781400847280
    .
  4. ^
    PMID 21199247
    .
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