Behaviour-dependent predation risk in swimming zooplankters

Uttieri, Marco; Cianelli, Daniela; Zambianchi, Enrico

doi:10.1186/1810-522x-52-32

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Our results are qualitatively consistent with predictions of theoretical models (Gerritsen and Strickler , Visser , Kiørboe and Jiang , Uttieri et al. ). Moreover, the differences in mortality risk reported here are in reasonable quantitative agreement with the model predictions of behavior‐dependent mortality risk in the species examined here (see van Someren Gréve et al.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Behavior is a major determinant of predation risk in zooplankton

2017

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Abstract. Zooplankton exhibit different small-scale motile behaviors related to feeding and mating activities. These different motile behaviors may result in different levels of predation risk, which may partially determine the structure of planktonic communities. Here, we experimentally determined predation mortality associated with (1) feeding activity (ambush feeders vs. feeding-current vs. cruising feeders) and (2) mate-finding behavior (males vs. females). The copepods Oithona nana, O. davisae (ambush feeders), Temora longicornis (feeding-current feeder), and Centropages hamatus (cruising feeder) were used as prey for different predatory copepods. Copepods with "active" feeding behaviors (feeding-current and cruising feeders) showed significantly higher mortality from predation (~2-8 times) than similarly sized copepods with low motility feeding behavior (ambush feeders). Copepod males, which have a more active motile behavior than females (mate-seeking behavior), suffered a higher predation mortality than females in most of the experiments. However, the predation risk for mate-searching behavior in copepods varied depending on feeding behavior with ambush feeders consistently having the greatest difference in predation mortality between genders (~4 times higher for males than for females). This gender-specific predation pressure may partially explain field observations of female-biased sex ratios in ambush feeding copepods (e.g., Oithonidae). Overall, our results demonstrate that small-scale motile behavior is a key trait in zooplankton that significantly affects predation risk and therefore is a main determinant of distribution and composition of zooplankton communities in the ocean.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Behavior is a major determinant of predation risk in zooplankton

2017

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“…The estimation of D 3D reveals the maintenance of the same level of track convolution independent of the crowding, while the parallel calculation of D xy , D xz and D yz points to an isotropic motion, without any directional preference. Numerical simulations [57–59] reveal the close relationship between D 3D and the encounter probability with prey, predators and mates. As such, a given D 3D represents a behavioural trade off between maximization of ‘positive’ encounters (with prey and mates) and minimization of ‘negative’ ones (with predators).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Homeostatic swimming of zooplankton upon crowding: the case of the copepod Centropages typicus

Uttieri

Hinow

Pastore

et al. 2021

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Crowding has a major impact on the dynamics of many material and biological systems, inducing effects as diverse as glassy dynamics and swarming. While this issue has been deeply investigated for a variety of living organisms, more research remains to be done on the effect of crowding on the behaviour of copepods, the most abundant metazoans on Earth. To this aim, we experimentally investigate the swimming behaviour, used as a dynamic proxy of animal adaptations, of males and females of the calanoid copepod Centropages typicus at different densities of individuals (10, 50 and 100 ind. l −1 ) by performing three-dimensional single-organism tracking. We find that the C. typicus motion is surprisingly unaffected by crowding over the investigated density range. Indeed, the mean square displacements as a function of time always show a crossover from ballistic to Fickian regime, with poor variations of the diffusion constant on increasing the density. Close to the crossover, the displacement distributions display exponential tails with a nearly density-independent decay length. The trajectory fractal dimension, D 3D ≅ 1.5, and the recently proposed ‘ecological temperature’ also remain stable on increasing the individual density. This suggests that, at least over the range of animal densities used, crowding does not impact on the characteristics of C. typicus swimming motion, and that a homeostatic mechanism preserves the stability of its swimming performance.

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“…Plankton trajectories might present more complex shapes that do not fit in the helical pattern but still presenting intriguing regularity. This is the case of C. furcatus swimming, which was been considered to be efficient for exploiting micro-patches of food [8,31]. However, the observation that C. furcatus moves at higher speed compared to other copepod species [19] might bring to the misleading conclusion that it is also exposed to high encounter rates with predators.…”

Section: B Ecological and Evolutionary Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of self-overlap reveals trade-offs in plankton swimming trajectories

Bianco

Mariani

Visser

et al. 2014

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Movement is a fundamental behaviour of organisms that not only brings about beneficial encounters with resources and mates, but also at the same time exposes the organism to dangerous encounters with predators. The movement patterns adopted by organisms should reflect a balance between these contrasting processes. This trade-off can be hypothesized as being evident in the behaviour of plankton, which inhabit a dilute three-dimensional environment with few refuges or orienting landmarks. We present an analysis of the swimming path geometries based on a volumetric Monte Carlo sampling approach, which is particularly adept at revealing such trade-offs by measuring the self-overlap of the trajectories. Application of this method to experimentally measured trajectories reveals that swimming patterns in copepods are shaped to efficiently explore volumes at small scales, while achieving a large overlap at larger scales. Regularities in the observed trajectories make the transition between these two regimes always sharper than in randomized trajectories or as predicted by random walk theory. Thus, real trajectories present a stronger separation between exploration for food and exposure to predators. The specific scale and features of this transition depend on species, gender and local environmental conditions, pointing at adaptation to state and stage-dependent evolutionary trade-offs.

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Behaviour-dependent predation risk in swimming zooplankters

Cited by 7 publications

References 53 publications

Behavior is a major determinant of predation risk in zooplankton

Behavior is a major determinant of predation risk in zooplankton

Homeostatic swimming of zooplankton upon crowding: the case of the copepod Centropages typicus

Analysis of self-overlap reveals trade-offs in plankton swimming trajectories

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