Optimal foraging

Large, generalist marine grazers such as fishes and urchins attempt to choose foods that maximize nutritional input (e.g., protein, lipids, and carbohydrate) (Mattson 1980 Choat and Clements 1998) and minimize intake of secondary metabolites (Hay 1991). The untested assumption underlying these optimal foraging decisions is that detoxification and excretion rates are a constraint on toxin intake and thus drive feeding choice (Freeland and Janzen 1974). However, we have virtually no information on such constraints in marine herbivores, because it requires an understanding of the metabolic fate of secondary metabolites. 

Jumars, P., J. Deming, P. Hill, L. Karp-Boss, P. L. Yager, and W. Dade. 1993. Physical constraints on marine osmotrophy in an optimal foraging context. Marine Microbial Food Webs 7 121-161. 

Plath, K., and Boersma, M. (2001). Mineral hmitarion of zooplankton Stoichiometric constraints and optimal foraging. Ecology 82(5), 1260-1269. 

For example, see E. L. Charnov. Optimal foraging attack strategy of a mantid. American Naturalist, 110 (1976), 141-51, for a simple, elegant, and pioneering contribution in this field. 

Rockwood, L. Hubbell, S. "Host-plant selection, diet diversity, and optimal foraging in a tropical leaf-cutting ant", Oecologia, 1987, 74, 55-61. 

Pyke GL (1984) Optimal foraging theory a critical review. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 15 523-575 Rahman S, Webster DR (2005) The effect of bed roughness on scalar fluctuations in turbulent... 

In their own territories, salamanders foraged as would be predicted from optimal foraging theory (Pyke, 1984). In territories of conspecifics. 

Pyke, G. H., 1984, Optimal foraging theory A critical review, Ann. 

Petranka, J.W. 1989. Response of toad tadpoles to conflicting chemical stimuli predator avoidance versus optimal foraging. Herpetologica 45 283-292. 

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