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126 results for “Predator–prey interactions”
Night warming alters mean warming effects on predator-prey interactions by modifying predator demographics and interaction strengths
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Data from: Food web interaction strength distributions are conserved by greater variation between than within predator-prey pairs
Species interactions in food webs are usually recognized as dynamic, varying across species, space and time due to biotic and abiotic drivers. Yet food webs also show emergent properties that appear consistent, such as a skewed frequency distribution of interaction strengths (many weak, few strong). Reconciling these two properties requires an understanding of the variation in pairwise interaction strengths and its underlying mechanisms. We estimated stream sculpin feeding rates in three seasons at nine sites in Oregon to examine variation in trophic interaction strengths both across and within predator-prey pairs. Predator and prey densities, prey body mass, and abiotic factors were considered as putative drivers of within-pair variation over space and time. We hypothesized that consistently skewed interaction strength distributions could result if individual interaction strengths show relatively little variation, or alternatively, if interaction strengths vary but shift in ways that conserve their overall frequency distribution. Feeding rate distributions remained consistently and positively skewed across all sites and seasons. The mean coefficient of variation in feeding rates within each of 25 focal species pairs across surveys was less than half the mean coefficient of variation seen across species pairs within a survey. The rank order of feeding rates also remained conserved across streams, seasons and individual surveys. On average, feeding rates on each prey taxon nonetheless varied by a hundredfold, with some feeding rates showing more variation in space and others in time. In general, feeding rates increased with prey density and decreased with high stream flows and low water temperatures, although for nearly half of all species pairs, factors other than prey density explained the most variation. Our findings show that although individual interaction strengths exhibit considerable variation in space and time, they can nonetheless remain relatively consistent, and thus predictable, compared to the even larger variation that occurs across species pairs. These results highlight how the ecological scale of inference can strongly shape conclusions about interaction strength consistency and collectively help reconcile how the skewed nature of interaction strength distributions can persist in highly dynamic food webs.
Data from: Incorporating anthropogenic effects into trophic ecology: predator-prey interactions in a human-dominated landscape
Apex predators perform important functions that regulate ecosystems worldwide. However, little is known about how ecosystem regulation by predators is influenced by human activities. In particular, how important are top-down effects of predators relative to direct and indirect human-mediated bottom-up and top-down processes? Combining data on species' occurrence from camera traps and hunting records, we aimed to quantify the relative effects of top-down and bottom-up processes in shaping predator and prey distributions in a human-dominated landscape in Transylvania, Romania. By global standards this system is diverse, including apex predators (brown bear and wolf), mesopredators (red fox) and large herbivores (roe and red deer). Humans and free-ranging dogs represent additional predators in the system. Using structural equation modelling, we found that apex predators suppress lower trophic levels, especially herbivores. However, direct and indirect top-down effects of humans affected the ecosystem more strongly, influencing species at all trophic levels. Our study highlights the need to explicitly embed humans and their influences within trophic cascade theory. This will greatly expand our understanding of species interactions in human-modified landscapes, which compose the majority of the Earth's terrestrial surface.
Data from: Warming has a greater effect than elevated CO2 on predator–prey interactions in coral reef fish
Ocean acidification and warming, driven by anthropogenic CO2 emissions, are considered to be among the greatest threats facing marine organisms. While each stressor in isolation has been studied extensively, there has been less focus on their combined effects, which could impact key ecological processes. We tested the independent and combined effects of short-term exposure to elevated CO2 and temperature on the predator–prey interactions of a common pair of coral reef fishes (Pomacentrus wardi and its predator, Pseudochromis fuscus). We found that predator success increased following independent exposure to high temperature and elevated CO2. Overall, high temperature had an overwhelming effect on the escape behaviour of the prey compared with the combined exposure to elevated CO2 and high temperature or the independent effect of elevated CO2. Exposure to high temperatures led to an increase in attack and predation rates. By contrast, we observed little influence of elevated CO2 on the behaviour of the predator, suggesting that the attack behaviour of P. fuscus was robust to this environmental change. This is the first study to address how the kinematics and swimming performance at the basis of predator–prey interactions may change in response to concurrent exposure to elevated CO2 and high temperatures and represents an important step to forecasting the responses of interacting species to climate change.
Data from: Persistence of an extinction-prone predator-prey interaction through metapopulation dynamics
In theory, predator-prey pairs with extinction-prone local populations can persist through metapopulation dynamics, wherein local populations fluctuate asynchronously, occasionally providing dispersers that prevent permanent extinction in all patches. A few studies have shown that spatial structure can extend predator-prey persistence. However, no studies have unequivocally demonstrated the asynchrony among patches, low dispersal rates, and rescue effects that prove metapopulation dynamics extend persistence. We used a protist predator-prey pair to show that spatial subdivision lengthens persistence through metapopulation dynamics. The pair comprised the predaceous ciliate, Didinium nasutum, feeding on the bacterivorous ciliate, Colpidium cf. striatum. A replicated experiment assessed how habitat subdivision affects persistence. Undivided habitats were of four volumes: 30, 180, 270, and 750 mt. Subdivided microcosms, or ''arrays,'' were groups of nine or 25 linked 30-mL bottles (270 or 750 mt total volume). In arrays, predators and prey persisted for 130 d (602 prey and 437 predator generations), at which point the experiment ended. Predators went extinct in undivided microcosms of equivalent volumes within a mean of only 70 d. Predators persisted for a mean of just 19 d in isolated 30-mL bottles (equivalent to isolated patches of arrays). In a separate experiment, prey were driven extinct in four of 15 isolated 30-mL bottles, and persistence times of predators were broadly similar. We documented the following hallmarks of metapopulation dynamics: (1) asynchronous fluctuations in different subpopulations; (2) frequent local prey extinctions and recolonizations; (3) persistence of protists in arrays, despite extinction of isolated local populations; and (4) rescue effects in predator populations. Other experiments measured dispersal rates and the effects on local dynamics of immigrant predators and prey, and initial predator : prey ratios. Only a small fraction of protists dispersed within a generation, consistent with metapopulation dynamics. Immigration of predators increased the frequency of local extinctions of prey, and immigration of prey increased the persistence of both predators and prey. Higher initial predator:prey ratios decreased the persistence of prey in undivided volumes. Although the pair persisted regionally in arrays, data indicated that local extinctions of prey were common. In array patches, predator:prey ratios were higher and predator-prey cycles were shorter than in undivided volumes. Dispersal made local dynamics more prone to extinction, yet promoted regional persistence because the risk of extinction of distant subpopulations became independent.
Data from: Estimating the intensity of use by interacting predators and prey using camera traps
Understanding how organisms distribute themselves in response to interacting species, ecosystems, climate, human development and time is fundamental to ecological study and practice. A measure to quantify the relationship among organisms and their environments is intensity of use: the rate of use of a specific resource in a defined unit of time. Estimating the intensity of use differs from estimating probabilities of occupancy or selection, which can remain constant even when the intensity of use varies. We describe a method to evaluate the intensity of use across conditions that vary in both space and time. We demonstrate its application on a large mammal community where linear developments and human activity are conjectured to influence the interactions between white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and wolves (Canis lupus) with possible consequences on threatened woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou). We collect and quantify intensity of use data for multiple, interacting species with the goal of assessing management efficacy, including a habitat restoration strategy for linear developments. We test whether blocking linear developments by spreading logs across a 200‐m interval can be applied as an immediate mitigation to reduce the intensities of use by humans, predator and prey species in a boreal caribou range. We deployed camera traps on linear developments with and without restoration treatments in a landscape exposed to both timber and oil development. We collected a three‐year dataset and employed spatial recurrent event models to analyse intensity of use by an interacting human and large mammal community across a range of environmental and climatic conditions. Spatial recurrent event models revealed that intensity of use by humans influenced the intensity of use by all five large mammal species evaluated, and the intensities of use by wolves and deer were inextricably linked in space and time. Conditions that resist travel on linear developments had a strong negative effect on the intensity of human and large mammal use. Mitigation strategies that resist, or redirect, animal travel on linear developments can reduce the effects of resource development on interacting human and predator–prey interactions. Our approach is easily applied to other continuous time point‐based survey methodologies and shows that measuring the intensity of use within animal communities can help scientists monitor, mitigate and understand ecological states and processes.
Data from: Interactive effects of predation risk and conspecific density on the nutrient stoichiometry of prey
The mere presence of predators (i.e., predation risk) can alter consumer physiology by restricting food intake and inducing stress, which can ultimately affect prey-mediated ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling. However, many environmental factors, including conspecific density, can mediate the perception of risk by prey. Prey conspecific density has been defined as a fundamental feature that modulates perceived risk. In this study, we tested the effects of predation risk on prey nutrient stoichiometry (body and excretion). Using a constant predation risk, we also tested the effects of varying conspecific densities on prey responses to predation risk. To answer these questions, we conducted a mesocosm experiment using caged predators (Belostoma sp.), and small bullfrog tadpoles (Lithobates catesbeianus) as prey. We found that L. catesbeianus tadpoles adjust their body nutrient stoichiometry in response to predation risk, which is affected by conspecific density. We also found that the prey exhibited strong morphological responses to predation risk (i.e., an increase in tail muscle mass), which were positively correlated to body nitrogen content. Thus, we pose the notion that in risky situations, adaptive phenotypic responses rather than behavioral ones might partially explain why prey might have a higher nitrogen content under predation risk. In addition, the interactive roles of conspecific density and predation risk, which might result in reduced perceived risk and physiological restrictions in prey, also affected how prey stoichiometry responded to the fear of predation.
Dimethyl sulfide mediates microbial predator-prey interactions between zooplankton and algae in the ocean
<p>Phytoplankton are key components of the oceanic carbon and sulfur cycles. During bloom events, some species can emit large amounts of the organosulfur volatile dimethyl sulfide (DMS) into the ocean, and consequently the atmosphere, where it can modulate aerosol formation and affect climate. In aquatic environments, DMS plays an important role as a chemical signal mediating diverse trophic interactions. Yet, its role in microbial predator-prey interactions remains elusive with contradicting evidence for its role in either algal chemical defense or in the chemoattraction of grazers to prey cells. Here, we investigated the signaling role of DMS during zooplankton-algae interactions by genetic and biochemical manipulation of the algal DMS-generating enzyme dimethylsulfoniopropionate lyase (DL) in the bloom-forming alga <em>Emiliania huxleyi</em>. We inhibited DL activity in <em>E. huxleyi</em> cells in-vivo using the selective DL-inhibitor 2-bromo-3-(dimethylsulfonio)-propionate (Br-DMSP), and overexpressed the DL encoding gene in the model diatom <em>Thalassiosira pseudonana.</em> We showed that algal DL activity did not serve as an anti-grazing chemical defense, but paradoxically enhanced predation by the grazer <em>Oxyrrhis marina </em>and other micro- and mesozooplankton, including ciliates and copepods. Consumption of algal prey with induced DL activity also promoted <em>O. marina</em> growth. Overall, our results demonstrate that DMS-mediated grazing may be ecologically important and prevalent during prey-predator dynamics in aquatic ecosystems. The role of algal DMS revealed here, acting as an eat-me signal for grazers, raises fundamental questions regarding the retention of its biosynthetic enzyme through the evolution of dominant bloom-forming phytoplankton in the ocean.</p>
Data from: Interactive effects of predation risk and conspecific density on the nutrient stoichiometry of prey
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Data from: Evolution determines how global warming and pesticide exposure will shape predator–prey interactions with vector mosquitoes
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Data from: Reciprocal behavioral plasticity and behavioral types during predator-prey interactions
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Data from: The mechanics of predator-prey interactions: first principles of physics predict predator-prey size ratios
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Data from: Estimating the intensity of use by interacting predators and prey using camera traps
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Data from: Plant defences limit herbivore population growth by changing predator–prey interactions
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Dimethyl sulfide mediates microbial predator-prey interactions between zooplankton and algae in the ocean
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Data from: Spatial extinction or persistence: landscape-temperature interactions perturb predator-prey dynamics
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Data from: Persistence of an extinction-prone predator-prey interaction through metapopulation dynamics
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Data from: Warming has a greater effect than elevated CO2 on predator–prey interactions in coral reef fish
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Data from: Food web interaction strength distributions are conserved by greater variation between than within predator-prey pairs
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Data from: Incorporating anthropogenic effects into trophic ecology: predator-prey interactions in a human-dominated landscape
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