Consumption driven population dynamics (CDPD)

Ecologists have long pursued a cohesive mathematical structure describing the interactions between the multitudes of species populating the web of life. Consumption dependence offers a logical approach built upon the mechanism of mass-energy flow necessary to all life processes. Consumption, defined as that fraction of satiation currently enjoyed by a local species population, will affect that populationʹs birth rate, natural death rate, and ability to acquire food. Consumption, a non-linear function of prey population, consuming population, and the environment in which these species live, sets the level of predation forming the primary link between species. ivision of environment comprising all biotic and abiotic elements aside from those directly contributing to consumption, also affects a populationʹs welfare. The inclusion of functions of species within environment variables for other species enables modeling many interactions between species additional to predation. Many environmental elements posses a cyclic nature overlaid by stochasticity. Results generated using cyclic and stochastic variations of environmental variables have produced interesting results that may add to our understanding of persistent competition. pproach is implemented as the iterated solution to multiple difference equations, one for each included species. Resulting population curves are highly stable, or unstable depending upon conditions impacting predator proficiency, that appear remarkably like real population data recorded over the past century under both natural and laboratory conditions.