Body Size and Orientation in Aggregates of Toad Tadpoles Bufo woodhousei

Breden, Felix; Lum, Andrew M.; Wassersug, Richard J.

doi:10.2307/1444669

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Schooling has been reported in toads of the genus Bufo (Beiswenger 1975, Breden et al 1982 and in spadefoots of the genus Scaphiopus (Richmond 1947, Bragg 1961, 1964. This schooling has been interpreted as an adaptation to crowding in species that have synchronized breeding and high fecundity, especially among filter feeders in ephemeral ponds (Richmond 1947, Wassersug 1973.…”

Section: Predationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Ecology of Food Webs: Complex Systems in Temporary Ponds

Wilbur

1997

Ecology

157

227

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MacArthur Award Recipient 2280 HENRY M. WILBUR Ecology Vol. 78, No. 8 dation. The addition of predation to these systems has three effects. (1) Predators can reduce, even eliminate, prey. There are species-specific differences among co-occurring prey in their risks of predation, and these risks change with relative body sizes of predator and prey. (2) Individuals may evoke an inducible defense that reduces their risk by either decreasing active foraging or developing morphological adaptations, such as changes in the coloration and shape of tails. These defenses may entail costs in body size and timing of metamorphosis. (3) Finally, mortality due to predators may reduce competition, thereby benefiting the population of the prey by permitting individuals that escape predation to grow rapidly enough to escape drying ponds.The order of arrival of species at breeding ponds has an impact on their own success as well as having a lasting impact on the success of species that arrive later. Such priority effects may result from size-specific changes in trophic connections or indirect effects between species mediated through the food web. Anurans can have strong effects on the partitioning of the flow of nutrients through the phytoplankton vs. the periphyton. This effect on partitioning of production can then have strong effects on zooplankton and insects. Salamanders can play the role of keystone, or critical, predators by affecting the structure of the assemblages of zooplankton and anurans that determine much of the dynamics of nutrient flows within food webs in temporary ponds.

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Section: Predationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Ecology of Food Webs: Complex Systems in Temporary Ponds

Wilbur

1997

Ecology

157

227

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“…Shoal formation in S. salpa was strongly size assorted -individuals of the same body length tended to stick together. This is not uncommon across taxa from insects 59 , amphibians 60 , birds 61 , mammals 62 and many fish 8 whose groups separate based on size, standing in for a range of important life-history traits and all the metabolic, behavioural and social changes that age brings. As they grow, S. salpa, like many other fish, show major changes in their diets, shifting from algae to seagrass 37,44 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dominant seagrass herbivore Sarpa salpa shifts its shoaling and feeding strategies as they grow

Buñuel

Alcoverro

Pagès

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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The relative benefits of group foraging change as animals grow. Metabolic requirements, competitive abilities and predation risk are often allometric and influenced by group size. How individuals optimise costs and benefits as they grow can strongly influence consumption patterns. The shoaling fish Sarpa salpa is the principal herbivore of temperate Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows. We used in-situ observations to describe how ontogeny influenced S. salpa individual feeding behaviour, shoaling behaviour and group foraging strategies, and its potential consequences to seagrass meadows. Shoaling was strongly influenced by body length: shoals were highly length-assorted and there was a clear positive relationship between body length and shoal size. Foraging strategies changed dramatically with shoal size. Small shoals foraged simultaneously and scattered over large areas. In contrast, larger shoals (made of larger individuals) employed a potentially cooperative strategy where individuals fed rotationally and focused in smaller areas for longer times (spot feeding). Thus, as individuals grew, they increased their potential impact as well, not merely because they consumed more, but because they formed larger shoals capable of considerably concentrating their grazing within the landscape. Our results indicate that ontogenetic shifts in group foraging strategies can have large ecosystem-wide consequences when the species is an important ecosystem modifier. While feeding in groups has clear immediate and evolutionary advantages, it is not without its challenges 1. The benefits of locating resources, facilitating consumption and diluting predation risk have to be offset against strong competitive pressures within the group, particularly when resources are scarce 2,3. For herbivores that spend a good portion of their time either trying to find food or feeding, group foraging has additional advantages. For one, it increases the success of finding feeding sites-either because there are more eyes to search, or because some individuals are better experienced 4. Once a resource is found, cooperative feeding can also maximize the foraging efficiency of the group 5,6. Feeding is a particularly risky activity in predator-prone areas, and groups help both to dilute the risk of individual predation as well to increase overall group vigilance 7-9. However, as the size of the group increases, so do the costs of joining it 10. For instance, the increased vigilance and dilution that groups provide needs to be balanced against higher conspicuousness as groups grow 11 ; odd sized individuals or those in a weak physical state may be easy pickings in larger groups 12-14. Also, in resource-limited environments, group foraging can enhance intraspecific competition 2,3. How individuals optimise costs and benefits is linked to the size, composition and behaviour of the group 8,10 , and can determine how key functions are distributed across the habitat. Large herbivore aggregations can radically modify vegetation structure 15,16 , leading, in...

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“…Associations of size-matched individuals are known from numerous studies, mainly on fish, and both in conspecific and heterospecific groups (reviewed by Ranta et al 1994), but also in tadpoles (e.g. Breden et al 1982;Branch 1983). There, size-assorted shoaling is explained by fitness gains of individual group members, either in the context of predation (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mixed‐species social aggregations in Madagascan tadpoles—determinants and species composition

Glos¹,

Dausmann²,

Linsenmair³

2007

Journal of Natural History

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Body Size and Orientation in Aggregates of Toad Tadpoles Bufo woodhousei

Cited by 21 publications

References 13 publications

Experimental Ecology of Food Webs: Complex Systems in Temporary Ponds

Experimental Ecology of Food Webs: Complex Systems in Temporary Ponds

The dominant seagrass herbivore Sarpa salpa shifts its shoaling and feeding strategies as they grow

Mixed‐species social aggregations in Madagascan tadpoles—determinants and species composition

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