Can species‐specific prey responses to chemical cues explain prey susceptibility to predation?

Abstract

The perception of danger represents an essential ability of prey for gaining an informational advantage over their natural enemies. Especially in complex environments or at night, animals strongly rely on chemoreception to avoid predators. The ability to recognize danger by chemical cues and subsequent adaptive responses to predation threats should generally increase prey survival. Recent findings suggest that European catfish (Silurus glanis) introduction induce changes in fish community and we tested whether the direction of change can be attributed to differences in chemical cue perception. We tested behavioral response to chemical cues using three species of freshwater fish common in European water: rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus), roach (Rutilus rutilus), and perch (Perca fluviatilis). Further, we conducted a prey selectivity experiment to evaluate the prey preferences of the European catfish. Roach exhibited the strongest reaction to chemical cues, rudd decreased use of refuge and perch did not alter any behavior in the experiment. These findings suggest that chemical cue perception might be behind community data change and we encourage collecting more community data of tested prey species before and after European catfish introduction to test the hypothesis. We conclude that used prey species can be used as a model species to verify whether chemical cue perception enhances prey survival.

Characteristics, Main Impacts, and Stewardship of Natural and Artificial Freshwater Environments: Consequences for Biodiversity Conservation

“…The absence of zooplankton due to the excessive predation of planktivorous fish has been widely recognized to contribute to cyanobacterial bloom formation (top-down effect). In most Eurasian meso-eutrophic reservoirs, fish assemblages are dominated by planktivorous cyprinids like common bream (Abramis brama), roach (Rutilus rutilus), bleak (Alburnus alburnus) and white bream (Blicca bjoerkna) [312], due to their efficient foraging in the turbid (algal-dominated) and food-limited conditions [313], and high abilities to escape predators [314]. In spite of clearly the highest biomass and productivity, these cyprinid-dominated systems are not considered to be valuable from the view of biotic integrity and rather they are classified as an indicator of degraded conditions [315].…”

A comparative study of three different methods for assessing fish communities in a small eutrophic lake

“…However, the catch of OLD roach increased much more from day to night than that of YOY roach, possibly due to a less pronounced anti‐predatory behaviour of the larger‐sized roach (Brabrand & Faafeng, ; Muška et al, ; Schulze, Dörner, Hölker, & Mehner, ). Additionally, the anti‐predatory behaviour of perch is often less distinct than that of roach (Eklöv & Persson, ; Jacobsen & Perrow, ; Lewin, Okun, & Mehner, ; Šmejkal et al, ). These diurnal patterns and behavioural differences between roach and perch may explain the variation in species composition derived with PASE day and night‐time surveys.…”

Indirect predator effects influence behaviour but not morphology of juvenile coral reefAmbon damselfishPomacentrus amboinensis

“…Whichever poses the greater benefit (evading or avoiding predation) is likely to play a role in what trait adjustments take place. In some cases, species rely less on morphological adjustments (which increase the likelihood of survival once seen by a predator) and instead rely on avoidance (to avoid being seen altogether) (Šmejkal et al ., 2018). The predator used in the experiment of this study, P. fuscus , has a high ambush strike success rate (Feeney et al ., 2012); therefore, P. amboinensis is likely to get caught and eaten if an interaction takes place, so it may be beneficial to avoid interactions at all costs.…”