A general consumer-resource population model

A model for who eats and who is eaten There are many types of interactions between those that eat and those that are eaten. A multitude of theoretical equations describe these dynamics, from predator and prey to parasite and host. Lafferty et al. show that all forms of these relationships come down to fundamental consumer-resource interactions. Derived from the myriad complex interactions, a simple model can accommodate any such interaction, simplifying past models into a general theory of eat and be eaten. Science , this issue p. 854