Stage-structured ontogeny in resource populations generates non-additive stabilizing and de-stabilizing forces in populations and communities

Demographic heterogeneity influences how populations respond to density dependent intraspecific competition and trophic interactions. Distinct stages across an organism’s development, or ontogeny, are an important example of demographic heterogeneity. In consumer populations, ontogenetic stage structure has been shown to produce categorical differences in population dynamics, community dynamics, and even species coexistence compared to models lacking explicit ontogeny. The study of consumer-resource interactions must also consider the ontogenetic stage structure of the resource itself, particularly plants, given their fundamental role at the basis of terrestrial food webs. We incorporate distinct ontogenetic stages of plants into an adaptable multi-stage consumer-resource modeling framework that facilitates studying how stage specific consumers shape trophic dynamics at low trophic levels. We describe the role of density dependent demographic rates in mediating the dynamics of stage-str...