UC Riverside

All chapters of this dissertation share two central themes: understanding predator–prey dynamics between kangaroo rats and rattlesnakes and developing standardized computational methods that are generalizable to other biological systems. In Chapter 1, I develop a game-theoretic agent-based model to simulate microhabitat use strategies in the kangaroo rat-rattlesnake system. Microhabitat choice shapes predator-prey interactions through differential selection pressures from aerial predators and sit-and-wait predators, as well as physical structure for refuge and camouflage. The results of our analysis show that when specialist predators occur at higher densities than generalist predators, both generalist predators and prey shift toward habitat specialization due to competition. In Chapter 2, I simulate microhabitat use from the perspective of an ectothermic predator that is thermoregulating to compare computational approaches to standard thermal ecology metrics used for determining how accurately ectotherms can maintain a preferred body temperature range. I find that rattlesnakes are not thermoconformers, but that models assuming regulation around a thermal preference boundary versus a thermal preference optimum yield similar simulated body temperature profiles. My findings indicate that individual thermal preferences strongly influence thermoregulatory behavior. In Chapter 3, I develop an ensemble modeling framework linking agent-based simulations of foraging and thermoregulation to a mathematical predator–prey model to assess population dynamics under climate change. Together, these chapters demonstrate how agent-based models can link behavioral decision-making and physiological constraints to population-level consequences in nonlinear predator–prey systems.