Alternative perspectives on consumer-resource dynamics: A reply to Ginzburg

Abstract

1. Ginzburg (1998) proposes that models of predator-prey interactions should conform to what he calls the 'biomass conversion principle', that consumer reproduction should be directly linked to resource consumption. 2. I argue that consumer-resource models can be built from two different perspectives - biomass conversion or individual survival - and that, as Ginzburg's principle only applies to the first, it should not be used to judge the plausibility of individual survival models. 3. I also suggest that a failure to understand and preserve the distinction between biomass consumption and individual survival may be responsible for much of the confusion and controversy in predator-prey theory.