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Non-consumptive effects (NCEs) of predators are ubiquitous in food webs with well-detailed impacts on trophic cascades over multiple levels. However, integrating NCEs with other predator-mediated interactions, like intraguild predation, as well as context-specific habitat factors that shape top-down pressure, remains a challenge. Focusing on two common seed predators, mice (Peromyscus spp.) and carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae), we quantify trophic and behavioral consequences of predation risk and availability of refuge vegetation on both intraguild predators (mice) and intraguild prey (beetles). In a 2-year field experiment, we manipulated refuge habitat (red clover), small mammal access, and moonlight, which small mammals use as an indirect cue of predation risk. We found that avoidance of predation risk by mice in simulated moonlight reduced carabid activity density in vegetation by up to 50% compared to exposed habitat, but had no cascading effects on seed predation. We linked patterns observed in the field with behavioral mechanisms by observing beetle foraging activity, and found that exposure to both indirect and direct vertebrate predator cues reduced movement by 50%, consistent with predator-mediated activity reductions observed in the field. However, predation risk increased carabid seed consumption by 43%. Thus, weak effects of predation risk on seed removal in the field may be explained by overcompensatory seed feeding by beetles. This work demonstrates that predators elicit responses that cascade over multiple trophic levels, triggering behavioral changes in species lower on the food chain. These behavior-mediated cascades are controlled by their spatiotemporal context and have important downstream impacts on predator-prey dynamics.

Defining historical baselines is critical for species conservation. Under the niche reduction hypothesis, species in decline may be restricted disproportionately from parts of their environmental niche. This bias likely has important implications for modeling species’ distributions if only contemporary occurrences (i.e. post‐range reduction) are used, because suitable habitat will be classified as unsuitable. Unfortunately, robust historical occurrence data is rarely available for sensitive species. In this study, we documented historical locations of the endangered, keystone giant kangaroo rat Dipodomys ingens by examining aerial imagery for burrow mounds. These burrow mounds are readily identifiable and distinguishable from other soil disturbances. We found giant kangaroo rat burrows well outside the currently accepted estimate of their historical distribution. Following the niche reduction hypothesis, we found that giant kangaroo rats have been extirpated from the flattest, hottest, driest parts of their range due to agricultural conversion. This reduction in their realized niche led to significant changes between historical and contemporary models of their distribution. We found that giant kangaroo rats may have occupied up to 56% more habitat historically than currently believed. Our results provide new guidance for managers working on restoration and habitat protection for this ecosystem engineer. This study highlights the critical importance of modeling historical distributions using the entire environmental niche once occupied by species of conservation need.

Weed management requires enormous labor investments from vegetable farmers, yet crops vary in how much weed pressure they can tolerate without yield loss. Moreover, until weeds reach a point where they threaten yield or approach seed production, they can increase biodiversity and provision food and habitat to attract predatory insects. In two related field experiments, we quantified impacts of weed presence and diversity on pests, predators, and biocontrol of both weed seeds and insect prey. We also measured yields of two vegetables that vary in competitiveness (eggplants and turnips) across two weed management treatments (weedy and weed-free), to determine productivity costs of tolerating weeds. Allowing weeds to grow adjacent to rows of eggplants increased abundances of predators and reduced pests. Surprisingly, relaxing weed management came at no cost to eggplant yield. In contrast, tolerating weeds in turnips had strong yield costs, and did not benefit predators or decrease pest pressure. On both crops, pests declined as weed diversity increased. Yet, weed treatments had no impact on consumption of weed seeds or sentinel prey by soil-surface insects, which were dominated by red imported fire ants. Our results suggest that highly competitive crops might benefit from stronger natural pest control when weeds are less-aggressively managed. However, herbivores and predators had unique responses to weeds that were crop-specific. To help farmers allocate limited weed management labor resources, future work should examine the relative competitiveness of a wider variety of vegetables over a gradient of weed pressure while measuring corresponding impacts on pest control.

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