scholarly journals Disturbed flow in an aquatic environment may create a sensory refuge for aggregated prey

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asa Johannesen ◽  
Alison M. Dunn ◽  
Lesley J. Morrell
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Aquatic Environment ◽  
Olfactory Cues ◽  
Flowing Water ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
Disturbed Flow ◽  
Fish Predators ◽  
Aggregation Size ◽  
Predator Foraging

Predators use olfactory cues moved within water and air to locate prey. Because prey aggregations may produce more cue and be easier to detect, predation could limit aggregation size. However, disturbance in the flow may diminish the reliability of odour as a prey cue, impeding predator foraging success and efficiency. We explore how different cue concentrations (as a proxy for prey group size) affect risk to prey by fish predators in disturbed (more turbulent or mixed) and non-disturbed (less mixed) flowing water. We find that increasing odour cue concentration increases predation risk and disturbing the flow reduces predation risk. At high cue concentration fish were able to locate the cue source in both disturbed and non-disturbed flow, but at medium concentrations, predators only located the cue source more often than expected by chance in non-disturbed flow. This suggests that objects disturbing flow provide a sensory refuge allowing prey to form larger groups, but that group sizes may be limited by level of disturbance to the flow.

scholarly journals Maximizing foraging success: the roles of group size, predation risk, competition, and ontogeny

Ecosphere ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. e02456 ◽  
Author(s):  
William D. Hintz ◽  
David G. Lonzarich
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Foraging Success

scholarly journals Natural dimethyl sulfide gradients would lead marine predators to higher prey biomass

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kylie Owen ◽  
Kentaro Saeki ◽  
Joseph D. Warren ◽  
Alessandro Bocconcelli ◽  
David N. Wiley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Dimethyl Sulfide ◽  
Zooplankton Biomass ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
Spatially Correlated ◽  
Prey Biomass ◽  
Marine Predators ◽  
Predator Foraging ◽  
The Impact

AbstractFinding prey is essential to survival, with marine predators hypothesised to track chemicals such as dimethyl sulfide (DMS) while foraging. Many predators are attracted to artificially released DMS, and laboratory experiments have shown that zooplankton grazing on phytoplankton accelerates DMS release. However, whether natural DMS concentrations are useful for predators and correlated to areas of high prey biomass remains a fundamental knowledge gap. Here, we used concurrent hydroacoustic surveys and in situ DMS measurements to present evidence that zooplankton biomass is spatially correlated to natural DMS concentration in air and seawater. Using agent simulations, we also show that following gradients of DMS would lead zooplankton predators to areas of higher prey biomass than swimming randomly. Further understanding of the conditions and scales over which these gradients occur, and how they are used by predators, is essential to predicting the impact of future changes in the ocean on predator foraging success.

Hunted hunters? Effect of group size on predation risk and growth in the Australian subsocial crab spider Diaea ergandros

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 785-794 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianca Unglaub ◽  
Jasmin Ruch ◽  
Marie E. Herberstein ◽  
Jutta M. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Crab Spider

scholarly journals Living in mixed species groups promotes predator learning in degraded habitats

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas P. Chivers ◽  
Mark I. McCormick ◽  
Eric P. Fakan ◽  
Randall P. Barry ◽  
Maud C. O. Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Alarm Cues ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Chemical Alarm Cues ◽  
Pomacentrus Amboinensis ◽  
Predator Foraging ◽  
Predator Learning ◽  
Predator Odour

AbstractLiving in mix-species aggregations provides animals with substantive anti-predator, foraging and locomotory advantages while simultaneously exposing them to costs, including increased competition and pathogen exposure. Given each species possess unique morphology, competitive ability, parasite vulnerability and predator defences, we can surmise that each species in mixed groups will experience a unique set of trade-offs. In addition to this unique balance, each species must also contend with anthropogenic changes, a relatively new, and rapidly increasing phenomenon, that adds further complexity to any system. This complex balance of biotic and abiotic factors is on full display in the exceptionally diverse, yet anthropogenically degraded, Great Barrier Reef of Australia. One such example within this intricate ecosystem is the inability of some damselfish to utilize their own chemical alarm cues within degraded habitats, leaving them exposed to increased predation risk. These cues, which are released when the skin is damaged, warn nearby individuals of increased predation risk and act as a crucial associative learning tool. Normally, a single exposure of alarm cues paired with an unknown predator odour facilitates learning of that new odour as dangerous. Here, we show that Ambon damselfish, Pomacentrus amboinensis, a species with impaired alarm responses in degraded habitats, failed to learn a novel predator odour as risky when associated with chemical alarm cues. However, in the same degraded habitats, the same species learned to recognize a novel predator as risky when the predator odour was paired with alarm cues of the closely related, and co-occurring, whitetail damselfish, Pomacentrus chrysurus. The importance of this learning opportunity was underscored in a survival experiment which demonstrated that fish in degraded habitats trained with heterospecific alarm cues, had higher survival than those we tried to train with conspecific alarm cues. From these data, we conclude that redundancy in learning mechanisms among prey guild members may lead to increased stability in rapidly changing environments.

scholarly journals Group-size-mediated habitat selection and group fusion–fission dynamics of bison under predation risk

Ecology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 90 (9) ◽  
pp. 2480-2490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Fortin ◽  
Marie-Eve Fortin ◽  
Hawthorne L. Beyer ◽  
Thierry Duchesne ◽  
Sabrina Courant ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Selection ◽  
Predation Risk ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Group Fusion

Ecological drivers of group size in female Alpine chamois, Rupicapra rupicapra

Mammalia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Chirichella ◽  
Andrea Mustoni ◽  
Marco Apollonio
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Energy Intake ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Food Availability ◽  
Herd Size ◽  
Rupicapra Rupicapra ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Mammalian Herbivores ◽  
Alpine Chamois

AbstractIn large mammalian herbivores, an increase in herd size not only reduces predation risk but also energy intake. As a consequence, the size of the groups made up by herbivores is often assumed to be the outcome of a trade-off depending on local predation risk and food availability. We studied Alpine chamois (

scholarly journals Prey synchronize their vigilant behaviour with other group members

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1615) ◽  
pp. 1287-1291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Pays ◽  
Pierre-Cyril Renaud ◽  
Patrice Loisel ◽  
Maud Petit ◽  
Jean-François Gerard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Prey Species ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Group Member

It is generally assumed that an individual of a prey species can benefit from an increase in the number of its group's members by reducing its own investment in vigilance. But what behaviour should group members adopt in relation to both the risk of being preyed upon and the individual investment in vigilance? Most models assume that individuals scan independently of one another. It is generally argued that it is more profitable for each group member owing to the cost that coordination of individual scans in non-overlapping bouts of vigilance would require. We studied the relationships between both individual and collective vigilance and group size in Defassa waterbuck, Kobus ellipsiprymnus defassa , in a population living under a predation risk. Our results confirmed that the proportion of time an individual spent in vigilance decreased with group size. However, the time during which at least one individual in the group scanned the environment (collective vigilance) increased. Analyses showed that individuals neither coordinated their scanning in an asynchronous way nor scanned independently of one another. On the contrary, scanning and non-scanning bouts were synchronized between group members, producing waves of collective vigilance. We claim that these waves are triggered by allelomimetic effects i.e. they are a phenomenon produced by an individual copying its neighbour's behaviour.

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