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48 results for “predator control”
Meta-analysis reveals controls on oyster predation 1977-2021
This dataset was created for investigating the patterns and drivers of variation in predation strength on oysters. Predation on oysters has been the subject of intense study because oysters are vital to creating coastal habitat, sustaining biodiversity, and enhancing or stabilizing important ecosystem functions. Understanding how predators affect oyster populations is important given the global decline in oysters and the substantial efforts focused on re-establishment and conservation. Despite widespread losses of oyster reefs, there have been no standardized and integrated quantitative assessments of the influence of predators on oysters. Therefore, this dataset was created by combining the results of 49 peer-reviewed articles reporting 384 experiments on oyster predation. These field and laboratory experiments tested whether the presence of predators affects oyster mortality or recruitment. The combined data was used in a meta-analysis, the results of which are published in the paper titled Meta-analysis reveals controls on oyster predation (Tedford and Castorani 2022), which represents the first quantitative synthesis to show that across a range of environments, predators have strong impacts on oysters.
Figure 3 in Compatibility between the predators Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and Chrysoperla externa (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) in the control of Planococcus citri (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) associated with rose crop
Figure 3 Behavior of Chrysoperla externa and Cryptolaemus montrouzieri acting in combination, against adult females of Planococcus citri. *Time averages (%) followed by the same letters do not differ by Tukey's Test, P <0.05. Lowercase letters compare predators within each category; uppercase letters compare each predator individually across categories.
Figure 2 in Compatibility between the predators Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and Chrysoperla externa (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) in the control of Planococcus citri (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) associated with rose crop
Figure 2Behavior of Chrysoperla externa against nymphs and adult females of Planococcus citri. Time averages (%) followed by the same letter do not differ by Tukey's test, P <0.05.
Figure 4 in Compatibility between the predators Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and Chrysoperla externa (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) in the control of Planococcus citri (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) associated with rose crop
Figure 4 Behavior of Chrysoperla externa and Cryptolaemus montrouzieri acting in combination, against first instar nymphs of Planococcus citri. *Time averages (%) followed by the same letters do not differ by Tukey's Test, P <0.05. Lowercase letters compare predators within each category; uppercase letters compare each predator individually across categories.
Figure 3 in Predatory capacity and intraguild interaction between aphidophagous predators in the control of rose bush aphids
Figure 3 Time spent by Hippodamia convergens (Coccinellidae) in each behavioral category evaluated in the presence and absence of prey and another predator (Chrysoperla externa – Chrysopidae), during 60 minutes. Temperature of 25±1°C, relative humidity of 70±10% and 12-hour photophase. Average time (%) followed by the same letters do not differ from each other by the Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's Test p<0.05.
Figure 2 in Predatory capacity and intraguild interaction between aphidophagous predators in the control of rose bush aphids
Figure 2 Time spent by Chrysoperla externa (Chrysopidae) in each behavioral category evaluated in the presence and absence of prey and another predator (Hippodamia convergens– Coccinellidae),during 60 minutes.Temperature of 25±1°C, relative humidity of 70±10% and 12-hour photophase. Average time (%) followed by the same letters do not differ from each other by the Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's Test p<0.05
Figure 1 in Predatory capacity and intraguild interaction between aphidophagous predators in the control of rose bush aphids
Figure 1 Survival rate of predators Chrysoperla externa (Chrysopidae) andHippodamia convergens (Coccinellidae) in the presence and absence of Rhodobium posorum and Macrosiphum rosae (Aphididae). Temperature of 25±1°C, relative humidity of 70±10% and 12-hour photophase.
Data from: Environmental variables influence patterns of mammal co-occurrence following introduced predator control
<p>Co-occurring species often overlap in resource use and can interact in complex ways. However, shifts in environmental conditions or resource availability can lead to changes in patterns of species co-occurrence, which may be exacerbated by global escalation of human disturbances to ecosystems, including conservation directed alterations. We investigated the relative abundance and co-occurrence of two naturally sympatric mammal species following two forms of environmental disturbance: wildfire and introduced predator control. Using 14 years of abundance data from repeat surveys at long-term monitoring sites in south-eastern Australia, we examined the association between a marsupial, the common brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula, and a co-occurring native rodent, the bush rat <em>Rattus fuscipes</em>. We asked: Is the increase in abundance of common brushtail possums following control of an introduced predator associated with a decline in abundance of the bush rats?</p> <p>Using Bayesian regression models, we tested hypotheses that the abundance of each species would vary with changes in environmental and disturbance variables, and that the negative association between bush rats and common brushtail possums was stronger than the association between bush rats and disturbance. Our analyses revealed that bush rat abundance varied greatly in relation to environmental and disturbance variables, whereas common brushtail possums showed relatively limited variation in response to the same variables. There was a negative association between common brushtail possums and bush rats, but this association was weaker than the initial decline and subsequent recovery of bush rats in response to wildfires.</p> <p>Using co-occurrence analysis, we can readily infer negative relationships in abundance between co-occurring species, but to understand the impacts of such associations, and plan appropriate conservation measures, we require more information on interactions between the species and environmental variables. Co-occurrence can be a powerful and novel method to diagnose threats to communities and understand changes in ecosystem dynamics.</p>
Data from: Environmental variables influence patterns of mammal co-occurrence following introduced predator control
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Learned predators enhance biological control via organizational upward and trophic top‐down cascades
<p>Learning is a behavioral change based on memory of previous experiences and a ubiquitous phenomenon in animals. Learning effects are commonly life stage- and age-specific. In many animals, early life experiences lead to pervasive and persistent behavioral changes.</p> <p>There is broad consensus that learning has far-reaching implications to biological control. Proximate and ultimate factors of individual learning by parasitoids and true predators are relatively well understood, yet the consequences of learning to higher organizational levels, populations and communities, and top-down trophic cascades are unexplored.</p> <p>We addressed this issue using a tri-trophic system consisting of predatory mites <em>Amblyseius swirskii</em>, Western flower thrips <em>Frankliniella occidentalis</em> and whole common bean plants, <em>Phaseolus vulgaris</em>. <em>F. occidentalis</em> are notorious horticultural pests that are difficult to control. Therefore, practitioners have much to gain by optimizing biological control of thrips.</p> <p>Previous studies have shown that early life experience of thrips by <em>A. swirskii</em> improves foraging on thrips later in life due to decreased prey recognition times and increased predation rates, together enhancing predator fecundity. Here, we hypothesized that early learning by<em> A. swirskii </em>enhances biological control of thrips via immediate and cascading effects. We predicted that release of thrips-experienced predators enhances predator population growth and thrips suppression and reduces plant damage as compared to release of thrips-naïve predators.</p> <p>The behavioral changes brought about by early learning cascaded up to the population and community levels. Thrips-experienced predators caused favorable immediate and cascading effects that could not be compensated for in populations founded by thrips-naïve predators. Populations founded by thrips-experienced predators grew faster, reached higher abundances, were more efficacious in suppressing an emerging thrips population and kept plant damage at lower levels than populations founded by thrips-naïve predators. Plant fecundity correlated negatively with thrips abundance and positively with predatory mite abundance. Improved biological control was mainly due to thrips-experienced founders providing for a head-start in predator population growth and thrips suppression.</p> <p>Synthesis and applications: Our study suggests that learned natural enemies have high potential to optimize augmentative biological control on a larger scale due to favorably modulating organizational upward and trophic top-down cascades.</p>
Bottom-up when it is not top-down: Predators and plants control biomass of grassland arthropods
1) We investigate where bottom-up and top-down control regulates ecological communities as a mechanism linking ecological gradients to the geography of consumer abundance and biomass. We use standardized surveys of 54 North American grasslands to test alternate hypotheses predicting 100-fold shifts in the biomass of four common grassland arthropod taxa—Auchenorrhyncha, sucking herbivores, Acrididae, chewing herbivores, Tettigoniidae, omnivores, and Araneae, predators. 2) Bottom-up models predict that consumer biomass tracks plant quantity (e.g. productivity and standing biomass) and quality (nutrient content) and that ectotherm access to food increases with temperature. Each of the focal trophic groups responded differently to these drivers: the biomass of sucking herbivores and omnivores increased with plant biomass; that of chewing herbivores tracked plant quality; and predator biomass did not depend on plant quality, plant quantity, or temperature. 3) The exploitation ecosystem hypothesis (EEH) is a top-down hypothesis that predicts a shift from resource limitation of herbivores when plant production is low, to predator limitation when plant production is high. In grasslands where spider biomass was low, herbivore biomass increased with plant biomass, whereas bottom-up structuring was not evident when spiders were abundant. Furthermore, neither predator biomass nor trophic position (via stable isotope analysis) increased with plant biomass, suggesting predators themselves are top-down limited. 4) Stable isotope analysis revealed that trophic position of the chewing herbivore and omnivore increased significantly with plant biomass, suggesting these groups increased scavenging and meat consumption in grasslands with higher carbohydrate availability. 5) Taken together, our snapshot sampling documents gradients of food web structure across 54 grasslands, consistent with multiple hypotheses of bottom-up and top-down regulation. 10-Jan-2020
Data from: Fox control and fire influence the occurrence of invasive predators and threatened native prey
<p>It can be challenging to distinguish management impacts from other population drivers, including 'natural' processes and co-occurring threats. However, disentangling processes is important, particularly when management may have unintended consequences, such as mesopredator release. We explored the effects of long-term, broadscale poison-baiting programs on the distribution of red foxes <em>Vulpes vulpes</em> (targeted invasive predator), feral cats <em>Felis catus</em> (unmanaged invasive competitor) and two of their threatened native prey in two fire-affected regions of south-eastern Australia. We synthesised data from 3,667 camera-trap deployments at 1,232 sites (172,052 trap-nights), combining experimental manipulation of foxes and fire with space-for-time approaches. Fox control effectiveness––in terms of decreased probability of fox occurrence and increased probability of prey occurrence––depended on the duration and intensity of the poison-baiting program. The effects of fox control on prey occurrence also varied between the two native prey species: fox control was strongly beneficial to the long-nosed potoroo <em>Potorous tridactylus</em> but had no measurable effect on southern brown bandicoot <em>Isoodon obesulus</em> occurrence. Feral cat occupancy tended to be higher in landscapes with long-term fox control, although we found no effect of fox-bait density on fine-scale cat occurrence. Time since fire (0–80 years) was associated with the occurrence of each study species, but its association with invasive predators also differed among vegetation types. Invasive predators and altered fire regimes are key, often overlapping, biodiversity threats. Our work highlights the importance of fine-scale monitoring and consideration of multiple drivers in distribution models to develop effective, tailored conservation strategies.</p>
Data for: Predation and biophysical context control long-term carcass nutrient inputs in an Andean ecosystem
<p>Animal carcass decomposition is an often-overlooked component of nutrient cycles. The importance of carcass decomposition for increasing nutrient availability has been demonstrated in several ecosystems, but impacts in arid lands are poorly understood. In a protected high desert landscape in Argentina, puma predation of vicuñas is a main driver of carcass distribution. Here, we sampled puma kill sites across three habitats (plains, canyons, and meadows) to evaluate the impacts of vicuña carcass and stomach decomposition on soil and plant nutrients up to 5 years after carcass deposition. Soil beneath both carcasses and stomachs had significantly higher soil nutrient content than adjacent reference sites in arid, nutrient-poor plains and canyons, but not in moist, nutrient-rich meadows. Stomachs had greater effects on soil nutrients than carcasses. However, we did detect higher plant N concentrations at kill sites. The biogeochemical effects of puma kills persisted for several years and increased over time, indicating that kills do not create ephemeral nutrient pulses, but can have lasting effects on the distribution of soil nutrients. Comparison to broader spatial patterns of predation risk reveals that puma predation of vicuñas is more likely in nutrient-rich sites, but carcasses have the greatest effects on soil nutrients in nutrient-poor environments, such that carcasses increase localized heterogeneity by generating nutrient hotspots in less productive environments. Predation and carcass decomposition may thus be important overlooked factors influencing ecosystem functioning in arid environments.</p>
Data from: Mesopredator release among invasive predators: controlling red foxes can increase feral cat density and alter their behaviour
<p>The mesopredator release theory predicts that the density of subordinate predators will increase as dominant predators decline. Persistent debate around mesopredator release in part reflects the lack of robust, replicated experiments to test this theory, and the use of population indices which confound changes in mesopredator density and detectability. This uncertainty has immediate impacts for conservationists who are faced with managing sympatric invasive predators.</p> <p>We used replicated experimental designs and spatially-explicit models to examine whether mesopredator release of the feral cat <em>Felis catus</em> occurs in response to targeted control of the introduced red fox <em>Vulpes vulpes</em>. We surveyed three Control-Impact paired landscapes in a region with long-term fox control (1080 poison baiting), and conducted a Before-After Control-Impact Paired-Series experiment in another region. We used fox occurrence as a simple metric of fox populations and estimated feral cat density with spatial mark-resight models.</p> <p>Lethal fox control had varying effects on fox occurrence, consistent with variation in the duration and intensity of poison baiting. Correspondingly, responses in feral cat density ranged from negligible to a 3.7-fold higher density in fox-baited landscapes. At a fine spatial scale (200 m<sup>2</sup>), feral cat density was negatively associated with fox occurrence probability across both regions. These results were consistent with mesopredator release, although uncertainty was high in the region where fox control had only recently commenced.</p> <p>Feral cat detectability also varied across the (artificially-manipulated) gradients of fox occurrence probability. In one region, nonlinear models indicated that feral cats had lower detection and increased movement rates when foxes were uncommon, giving way to density suppression at high fox occurrence probabilities.</p> <p><em>Synthesis and applications.</em> Our study provides replicated, experimental evidence that dominant predator suppression can be associated with a higher mesopredator density. Mesopredator release can manifest as changes in both behaviour and density, distorting inference if these processes are not distinguished. Our results may help explain why fox control does not consistently improve native prey persistence, suggesting integrated pest management may be necessary to improve conservation outcomes.</p>
Functional identity of dominant species in a predator community prevails over functional diversity in shaping the top-down control of herbivores
<ol> <li><span>Decline in species richness as well as changes in community evenness or functional diversity have been hypothesized to jointly affect ecosystem functioning. However, disentangling the relative effects of these changes in community structure is hard as these different aspects often covary with species richness in real-world ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the individual and interactive effects of functional diversity and community evenness of predators on the level of control of herbivorous prey. </span></li> <li><span>Using a highly-replicated mesocosm experiment, we crossed three levels of functional diversity of arthropod predators with two levels of community evenness while controlling for the effect of species richness. Using this experimental setting, we hypothesized that the effect size of functional diversity of predators depends on community evenness. We expected a positive effect of functional diversity of predators on top-down control at a high level of community evenness while we thought that species identity and their associated traits should drive most of the effect on top-down control at a low level of community evenness. </span></li> <li><span>Our results did not provide any evidence for an interaction between functional diversity and community evenness nor any beneficial effect of increased functional diversity overall on predation rates of herbivorous prey. In addition, our results revealed that species and functional identity drives most of the effects of predator community composition on top-down control of their prey in our study system. Assemblages composed of active hunters with low handling time and no starvation ability tended to have the highest impacts on prey biomass.</span></li> <li><span>By indicating that top-down control of herbivorous prey by arthropod predators is mainly driven by species and functional identity and not by functional diversity, our study provides insights into the consequences of ongoing species loss on ecosystem functioning. Future research should now explore the predictability of trophic interactions based on functional traits of predator and herbivorous prey to anticipate the consequences of changes in species composition on ecosystem functioning.</span></li> </ol>
Data from: Evaluating predator control using two non-invasive population metrics: a camera trap activity index and density estimation from scat genotyping
<p>Includes datasets from the Wimmera and Mallee, Victoria, Australia:</p> <p>- Fox camera trap data used to model activity</p> <p>- Fox scat SECR capture and trap files used to model density</p>
Landscape composition shapes biological control by promoting off-season predator diversity
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Learned predators enhance biological control via organizational upward and trophic top‐down cascades
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Data from: Mesopredator release among invasive predators: controlling red foxes can increase feral cat density and alter their behaviour
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Landscape composition mediates the relationship between predator body size and pest control
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