The marginal value theorem is an optimality model in behavioral ecology describing how a forager should decide when to leave a patch of resources for another, in an environment where patches are separated by travel time during which no resources can be gathered. It predicts that an optimally foraging individual should depart a patch once its rate of resource intake there falls to the average rate available across the whole environment, and the model has also been applied to other situations involving diminishing returns.
Facts
StatementThe predator should leave the patch it is presently in when the marginal capture rate in the patch drops to the average capture rate for the habitat. 1 Classification
Statement FormCharacterization Theorem 1 Connections
Sources
1. Marginal value theorem - Wikipedia
Lead section
The predator should leave the patch it is presently in when the marginal capture rate in the patch drops to the average capture rate for the habitat.
Lead paragraph
first proposed by Eric Charnov in 1976
In Group: Decision Theory and Utility, Lead
The marginal value theorem (MVT) is an optimality model that usually describes the behavior of an optimally foraging individual in a system where resources (often food) are located in discrete patches separated by areas with no resources.
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.