Evolutionarily stable strategies for consuming a structured resource

A general consumer-resource model assuming discrete consumers and a continu ously structured resource is examined. We study two foraging behaviors, whi ch lead to fixed and flexible patch residence times, in conjunction with a simple consumer energetics model linking resource consumption, foraging beh avior, and metabolic casts. Results indicate a single, evolutionarily stabl e foraging strategy for fixed and flexible foraging in a nonspatial environ ment, but flexible foraging in a spatial environment leads to consumer grou ping, which affects the resource distribution such that no single foraging strategy can exclude all other strategies. This evolutionarily stable coexi stence of multiple foraging strategies may help explain a dichotomous patte rn observed in a wide variety of natural systems.