Practice question

Alternative prey with uncorrelated abundance do not generally lead to unstable equilibrium. They can buffer a generalist predator’s food supply because one prey may be abundant when another is scarce, and predator switching toward common prey can stabilize dynamics. They can also generate apparent competition or sustain predators that overexploit a rare prey, so the outcome depends on functional responses, switching, and interaction strengths; uncorrelated abundance alone has no fixed destabilizing sign. Predator saturation, by contrast, is a recognized destabilizing mechanism in many predator–prey models. With a saturating type II functional response, predation fails to increase proportionally at high prey density, allowing prey outbreaks, while continued predation at lower densities can deepen crashes. Stability must be evaluated from specified equations or Jacobian eigenvalues, not assigned from a single qualitative feature. Mimicry and dormancy may alter encounter rates or temporal structure but are not universal determinants either. KEY MISMATCH: the keyed alternative-prey statement is not generally valid, and predator saturation is the better-supported destabilizing factor among the choices.