Functional response,numerical response,and stability in arthropod predator-prey ecosystems involving age structure

Summary A general model of arthropod predator-prey systems incorporating age structure in the predator is employed to study the role of functional and numerical responses on stability and the paradox of enrichment. The destabilizing effect of age structure leads to both qualitatively and quantitatively new results for an environment which has an infinite prey carrying capacity, including a lower bound to prey density for a stable equilibrium, a feature not present in models without age structure. When applied to an environment with finite prey carrying capacity, the effect of age structure is to reinforce the arguments implicit to the paradox of enrichment originally developed for traditional models lacking age structure.