Which of these contributes to predator’s carrying capacity besides victim abundance?
Alternative prey can raise a predator population’s effective carrying capacity because they provide energy when the principal victim is scarce. A generalist predator may switch its foraging effort, maintain survival and reproduction, and persist at densities that the focal prey alone could not support. In population models, predator growth depends on the summed contributions of consumable prey, so an additional positive term can keep net growth above mortality. Refuge space generally protects prey and may lower predator intake rather than support more predators. Mutualism and migration can inf
Ref: Ecology: Concepts and Applications, Molles, 9th Ed., Ch. 14
