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The oscillations in rotifer and unicellular algae populations were measured across 50 cycles and more than 300 predator generations - a record for a study of this kind. To confirm these dynamics, the researchers kept plankton in glass vessels under highly controlled conditions - constant temperature – and used rotifers, which feed on algal cells, as predators. This in turn leads to a rapid increase in the prey population – and a new cycle begins. Soon afterwards, predator numbers likewise decrease due to starvation. Predator-prey cycles are based on a feeding relationship between two species: if the prey species rapidly multiplies, the number of predators increases - until the predators eventually eat so many prey that the prey population dwindles again.
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The researchers used a microbial predator and prey system to try and understand if these predator-prey population cycles occur naturally through the interaction of the two species or if they are the result of external drivers.īalanced cycles of predator-prey populations This process can lead to potentially endless predator-prey cycles.” “Yet, if predators are a bit less efficient, prey populations may be able to recover while predator numbers dwindle. “Because predators eat their prey there is always a danger that they perish after killing off the resource that kept them alive,” says Gregor Fussmann, professor in McGill’s Department of Biology and co-senior author of the new study published in Nature. How can predators coexist with their prey over long periods without the predators completely depleting the resource that keeps them alive? Experiments performed over a period of 10 years by researchers from McGill University and the Universities of Oldenburg and Potsdam have now confirmed that regular oscillations in predator-prey populations can persist over very long periods