In ecology, an ideal free distribution is a way in which animals distribute themselves among several patches of resources. The theory states that the number of individual animals that will aggregate in various patches is proportional to the amount of resources available in each. For example, if patch A contains twice as many resources as patch B, there will be twice as many individuals foraging in patch A as in patch B. The ideal free distribution (IFD) theory predicts that the distribution of animals among patches will minimize resource competition and maximize fitness.
The term "ideal" implies that animals are aware of each patch’s quality, and they choose to forage in the patch with the highest quality. The term "free" implies that animals are capable of moving unhindered from one patch to another. Although these assumptions are not always upheld in nature, there are still many experiments that have been performed in support of IFD, even if populations naturally deviate between patches before reaching IFD. IFD theory can still be used to analyze foraging behaviors of animals, whether those behaviors support IFD, or violate it.
Read more about Ideal Free Distribution: Assumptions and Predictions, Shortcomings
Famous quotes containing the words ideal, free and/or distribution:
“The ideal place for me is the one in which it is most natural to live as a foreigner.”
—Italo Calvino (1923–1985)
“Every expansion of government in business means that government in order to protect itself from the political consequences of its errors and wrongs is driven irresistibly without peace to greater and greater control of the nation’s press and platform. Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“The man who pretends that the distribution of income in this country reflects the distribution of ability or character is an ignoramus. The man who says that it could by any possible political device be made to do so is an unpractical visionary. But the man who says that it ought to do so is something worse than an ignoramous and more disastrous than a visionary: he is, in the profoundest Scriptural sense of the word, a fool.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)