Statistical Issues in the Estimation of Functional Responses

Abstract

In this chapter I cover some key issues in fitting functional response models to data and determining the values of parameters. Because some of these issues have been covered elsewhere, here I focus on the nature of foraging trial data and why noise, stochasticity, and individual variation pose particular challenges for understanding functional responses. I examine several data sets to illustrate methods of determining differences in functional response parameters and types. I also show through simulations that individual variation in functional response parameters may account for the noisiness of foraging data and also lead to underestimates of both space clearance rate and handling time in curve-fitting approaches.