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126 results for “Predator–prey interactions”

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dryad36/100

Data from: Behavioral hypervolumes of predator groups and predator-predator interactions shape prey survival rates and selection on prey behavior

Predator-prey interactions often vary on the basis of the traits of the individual predators and prey involved. Here we examine whether the multidimensional behavioral diversity of predator groups shapes prey mortality rates and selection on prey behavior. We ran individual sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus) through three behavioral assays to characterize individuals' behavioral phenotype along three axes. We then created groups that varied in the volume of behavioral space that they occupied. We further manipulated the ability of predators to interact with one another physically via the addition of barriers. Prey snails (Chlorostome funebralis) were also run through an assay to evaluate their predator avoidance behavior before their use in mesocosm experiments. We then subjected pools of prey to predator groups and recorded the number of prey consumed and their behavioral phenotypes. We found that predator-predator interactions changed survival selection on prey traits: when predators were prevented from interacting, more fearful snails had higher survival rates, whereas prey fearfulness had no effect on survival when predators were free to interact. We also found that groups of predators that occupied a larger volume in behavioral trait space consumed 35% more prey snails than homogeneous predator groups. Finally, we found that behavioral hypervolumes were better predictors of prey survival rates than single behavioral traits or other multivariate statistics (i.e., principal component analysis). Taken together, predator-predator interactions and multidimensional behavioral diversity determine prey survival rates and selection on prey traits in this system.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Diversity in thermal affinity among key piscivores buffers impacts of ocean warming on predator-prey interactions

Asymmetries in responses to climate change have the potential to alter important predator-prey interactions, in part by altering the location and size of spatial refugia for prey. We evaluated the effect of ocean warming on interactions between four important piscivores and four of their prey in the U.S. Northeast Shelf by examining species overlap under historical conditions (1968-2014) and with a doubling in CO2. Because both predator and prey shift their distributions in response to changing ocean conditions, the net impact of warming or cooling on predator-prey interactions was not determined a priori from the range extent of either predator or prey alone. For Atlantic cod, an historically dominant piscivore in the region, we found that both historical and future warming led to a decline in the proportion of prey species' range it occupied and caused a potential reduction in its ability to exert top-down control on these prey. In contrast, the potential for overlap of spiny dogfish with prey species was enhanced by warming, expanding their importance as predators in this system. In sum, the decline in the ecological role for cod that began with overfishing in this ecosystem will likely be exacerbated by warming, but this loss may be counteracted by the rise in dominance of other piscivores with contrasting thermal preferences. Functional diversity in thermal affinity within the piscivore guild may therefore buffer against the impact of warming on marine ecosystems, suggesting a novel mechanism by which diversity confers resilience.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Thermal sensitivity and the role of behavior in driving an intertidal predator-prey interaction

Environmental stress models (ESM) provide a useful framework to study the direct and indirect ecological drivers of community diversity and resilience. ESMs make predictions about the relative importance of structuring processes (e.g., predation) based on the relative stress suffered by consumers and prey. Their practical application, i.e., determining the conditions under which consumers and prey performance is more negatively affected, has been limited because the roles of behavior and physiology are not usually considered. We examined the role of thermal sensitivity and behavior on the thermal performance of the rocky intertidal predator Pisaster ochraceus and its main prey Mytilus californianus. We propose a novel framework that merges thermal performance curves (TPC) with observations of microhabitat use to provide a realistic perspective of the relative physiological conditions of predator and prey. First, by deriving aquatic and aerial TPCs for both species and from two sites, we found differences in parameter values that in some cases correspond to the individuals' origins. Second, we calculated realized thermal performance in the field by combining TPCs with body temperatures recorded with biomimetic sensors. Notably, thermal performance of Pisaster was higher than that for Mytilus (i.e., prey-stress model), contrary to previous expectations based on caging experiments. Third, these estimates of thermal performance corresponded loosely with a measured indicator of overall physiological condition (body mass index, BMI) and a marker for extreme thermal stress (heat-shock proteins 70 kDa), suggesting that environmental drivers other than temperature, such as food supply, must be considered. We found no evidence that Pisaster movement significantly influences thermal performance under typical conditions, suggesting instead that its preference for sheltered microhabitats provides a mechanism for avoiding exposure to extreme environmental conditions. Through the application of TPCs and ESMs, this study provides a unique perspective on the importance of physiology and behavior in driving the sensitivity of species interactions to environmental change. Crucially, this framework allowed clarifying that this system behaves as a prey- instead of consumer-stress model, which may also apply to many other ectotherm species interactions.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

dryad36/100

Thermal plasticity and evolution shape predator-prey interactions differently in clear and turbid water

Warming and eutrophication negatively affect freshwater ecosystems by modifying trophic interactions and increasing water turbidity. We need to consider their joint effects on predator-prey interactions, and how these depend on the thermal evolution of both predator and prey. We quantified how 4°C warming and algae-induced turbidity (that integrates turbidity per se and increased food for zooplankton prey) affect functional response parameters and prey population parameters in a common-garden experiment. We did so for all combinations of high- and low-latitude predator (damselfly larvae) and prey (water fleas) populations to assess the potential impact of thermal evolution of predators and/or prey at a high latitude under warming using a space-for-time substitution. We then modelled effects on the system stability (i.e. tendency to oscillate) under different warming, turbidity and evolutionary scenarios. Warming and turbidity had little effect on the functional response parameters of high-latitude predators. In contrast, warming and turbidity reduced the handling times of low-latitude predators. Moreover, warming increased the search rates of low-latitude predators in clear water but instead decreased these in turbid water. Warming increased stability (i.e. prevented oscillations) in turbid water (except for the "high-latitude predator & high-latitude prey" system), mainly by decreasing the prey's carrying capacity and partly also by decreasing search rates, while it did not affect stability in clear water. Algae-induced turbidity generally decreased stability, mainly by increasing the prey's carrying capacity and partly also by increasing search rates. This resembles findings that nutrient enrichment can reduce the stability of trophic systems. The expected stability of the high-latitude trophic system under warming was dependent on the turbidity level: our results suggest that thermal plasticity tends to destabilize the high-latitude trophic system under warming in clear water but not in turbid water, and that thermal evolution of the predator will stabilize the high-latitude system under warming in turbid water but less so in clear water. The extent to which thermal plasticity and evolution shape trophic system stability under warming may strongly differ between clear and turbid water bodies, with their contributions having a more stabilizing role in turbid water.

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Inferring predator-prey interactions from camera traps: A Bayesian co-abundance modelling approach

Predator-prey dynamics are a fundamental part of ecology, but directly studying interactions has proven difficult. The proliferation of camera trapping has enabled the collection of large datasets on wildlife, but researchers face hurdles inferring interactions from observational data. Recent advances in hierarchical co-abundance models infer species interactions while accounting for two species' detection probabilities, shared responses to environmental covariates, and propagate uncertainty throughout the entire modelling process. However, current approaches remain unsuitable for interacting species whose natural densities differ by an order of magnitude and have contrasting detection probabilities, such as predator-prey interactions, which introduce zero-inflation and overdispersion in count histories. Here we developed a Bayesian hierarchical N-mixture co-abundance model that is suitable for inferring predator-prey interactions. We accounted for excessive zeros in count histories using an informed zero-inflated Poisson distribution in the abundance formula and accounted for overdispersion in count histories by including a random effect per sampling unit and sampling occasion in the detection probability formula. We demonstrate that models with these modifications outperform alternative approaches, improve model goodness-of-fit, and overcome parameter convergence failures. We highlight its utility using 20 camera trapping datasets from 10 tropical forest landscapes in Southeast Asia and estimate four predator-prey relationships between tigers, clouded leopards, and muntjac and sambar deer. Tigers had a negative effect on muntjac abundance, providing support for top-down regulation, while clouded leopards had a positive effect on muntjac and sambar deer, likely driven by shared responses to unmodelled covariates like hunting. This Bayesian co-abundance modelling approach to quantify predator-prey relationships is widely applicable across species, ecosystems, and sampling approaches, and may be useful in forecasting cascading impacts following widespread predator declines. Taken together, this approach facilitates a nuanced and mechanistic understanding of food-web ecology.

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Conspicuous coloration of toxin-resistant predators implicates additional trophic interactions in a predator-prey arms race

Antagonistic coevolution between natural enemies can produce highly exaggerated traits, such as prey toxins and predator resistance. This reciprocal process of adaptation and counter-adaptation may also open doors to other evolutionary novelties not directly involved in the phenotypic interface of coevolution. We tested the hypothesis that predator-prey coevolution coincided with the evolution of conspicuous coloration on resistant predators that retain prey toxins. In western North America, common garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) have evolved extreme resistance to tetrodotoxin (TTX) in the coevolutionary arms race with their deadly prey, Pacific newts (Taricha spp.). TTX-resistant snakes can retain large amounts of ingested TTX, which could serve as a deterrent against the snakes' own predators if TTX toxicity and resistance are coupled with a conspicuous warning signal. We evaluated whether arms race escalation co-varies with bright red coloration in snake populations across the geographic mosaic of coevolution. Snake color variation departs from the neutral expectations of population genetic structure and co-varies with escalating clines of newt TTX and snake resistance at two coevolutionary hotspots. In the Pacific Northwest, bright red coloration fits an expected pattern of an aposematic warning to avian predators: TTX-resistant snakes that consume highly toxic newts also have relatively large, reddish-orange dorsal blotches. Snake coloration also seems to have evolved with the arms race in California, but overall patterns are less intuitively consistent with aposematism. These results suggest that interactions with additional trophic levels can generate novel traits as a cascading consequence of arms race coevolution across the geographic mosaic.

opencc-zeroMar 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Predator-prey interactions in the Arctic: DNA-metabarcoding reveals that nestling diet of snow buntings reflects arthropod seasonality

Tundra arthropods are of considerable ecological importance as a seasonal food source for many arctic-breeding birds. Dietary composition and food preferences are rarely known, complicating assessments of ecological interactions in a changing environment. In our field study, we investigated nestling diet of snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis (L., 1758)) breeding in Svalbard. We collected faecal samples from 8-day-old nestlings and assessed dietary composition by DNA-metabarcoding. Simultaneously, the availability of potential prey arthropods was measured by pitfall-trapping. Molecular analyses of nestling faeces identified 31 arthropod taxa in the diet, whose proportions changed throughout the brood-rearing period. Changes in nestling diet matched varying abundances and emergence patterns of the tundra arthropod community. Snow buntings provisioned their offspring mainly with Diptera (true flies) based on both presence/absence and relative read abundance of diet items. At the beginning of the season in June, Chironomidae (non-biting midges) and the scathophagid fly Scathophaga furcata (Say, 1823) dominated the diet, whereas the muscid fly Spilogona dorsata (Zetterstedt, 1845) dominated the diet later in July. When accounted for availability, muscid flies were selected positively amongst the most often provisioned food taxa. Our study demonstrates the ecological role of the snow bunting as a generalist arthropod predator and highlights DNA-metabarcoding as a non-invasive technique for diet analyses with high taxonomical precision if sufficient DNA-sequence libraries are available.

opencc-zeroJun 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Behavioral diversity and biomechanical determinants of the outcome of a fish predator-prey interaction

Predator-prey interactions are ubiquitous and under strong selection because of the consequences experienced by both predator and prey if they lose the interaction. Biomechanics and behavior play important roles in the outcome of these interactions, but many studies focus on the prey, restrict the range of behaviors considered, and the role of prey boldness in the outcome is not understood. We used high-speed video to test for effects of multiple measures of performance and kinematics of both the predator and prey, and boldness of prey on the outcome of interactions between Pike Cichlids (Crenicichla) and Guppies (Poecilia reticulata). We found high variation in the behaviors employed during the predator-prey interactions, including in suction versus raptorial feeding, strike accuracy, and guppy responsiveness. We also found that predators moving relatively slower and prey moving relatively faster were more successful at consuming the prey and evading the predator, respectively. Prey that reacted farther from the predator were more likely to escape predation, but boldness of the prey did not affect the interaction. Our work suggests that a high level of variation in predator-prey interactions is widespread, even when strike and escape behaviors are stereotyped. We also showed that what both the predator and the prey do during an interaction are important in determining the outcome.

opencc-zeroJul 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Data and R code for: Handling- or digestion-limited predator: the role of body masses and habitat complexity in predator-prey feeding interaction

Predator functional response is a key element of feeding interactions that quantify the per capita feeding rates of predators depending on prey density, and variation in its parameters is strongly associated with interaction strength and population dynamics. We studied 18 functional responses of the marine whelk-bivalve systems across three levels of predator body size and three prey species at two habitat structures. We found that the marine whelk can be a handling-limited predator which received less attention so far. We propose that the handling-limited predator can further be categorized into two types: pursuing-limited (where maximum feeding rate could be influenced by habitat complexity) and ingesting-limited (where maximum feeding rate is impacted not by habitat complexity, but predator-prey body mass ratios and prey defense strategy). Our results show that handling time scales negatively with predator-prey body mass ratios, but there are layers of complexity nested within this trend. We first provide an underlying mechanism of this trend is the transition from handling to digestion limitation with increasing predator-prey body mass ratios. In addition to confirming known body mass ratios and habitat structure effects, our study confirms the importance of prey types. Our study reveals that simple assumptions about body masses and prey defense strategy may usefully refine estimates of feeding interactions in complex food webs.

opencc-zeroSep 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Individual survival is dictated by group personality in a marsh ecosystem predator-prey interaction

Predator–prey interactions structure ecological communities, and personality can significantly mediate these interactions. Personality expression is often contingent on social context, suggesting that group personality may be key in determining the outcomes of predator encounters. Here we test the influence of individual personality and group composition on survival of the marsh periwinkle, Littoraria irrorata, when exposed to its main predator, the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, both integral players in mediating the productivity and health of salt marsh ecosystems. Personality varied along a bold-shy continuum and was unrelated to shell length, though neither trait influenced survival when individual snails were exposed to a predator. However, when snails were partitioned into groups differing in personality composition, snails in groups with bold individuals had higher survival than those in groups with none. While group type did not influence the survival of bold snails, shy snails performed significantly better in mixed groups: the presence of a few bold individuals emerged as especially effective in decreasing mortality of shy snails. The effect of personality on predator escape is thus conditional on group personality composition, indicating that social context can directly impact the survival and success of its individual members, with broad implications for community dynamics.

opencc-zeroOct 2023View details →

dryad36/100