Interference and generation cycles

In this paper we re-examine the derivation of an interference limited functional response due to Beddington (1975 J. Anim. Ecol.44, 331–340) and extend his treatment to more realistic models of the interference process. We study the dynamic effects of interference in the context of a structured population model and show that the stabilising effect of interference against paradox of enrichment cycles is unaffected by age-structure. We also demonstrate that single generation cycles are much more weakly affected by interference than prey-escape cycles. Thus the net effect of weak interference is to prevent single generation cycles from being masked by the prey-escape cycles which would otherwise dominate the population dynamics.