A model of resource renewal and depletion is used to explore the relationship between the distribution and abundance of the resources encountered by a forager (encountered crop) and the distribution and abundance of resources observed by researchers (standing crop). Unless the arrival rate of any forager at a patch is independent of previous arrivals at that patch, encountered crop does not equal standing crop. Pollination ecologists should be wary of using standing crop to measure encountered crop. When resources in a patch renew at a constant rate, systematic foraging (reducing the standard deviation but not the mean of the inter-arrival time) does not increase the mean resource abundance encountered by a forager. However, systematic foraging may increase the fitness of a territorial forager because it reduces mean standing crop and therefore intruder pressure, and systematic foraging may increase the fitness of a risk-averse forager because it reduces the standard deviation of encountered crop. When the rate of resource renewal in a patch depends on the amount of resource in that patch, systematic foraging alters the mean resource abundance encountered by a forager. In particular, when resources increase in a patch at a decreasing rate, systematic foraging increases mean encountered crop.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Hugh P. Possingham (1989) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 4 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: