Ecological and evolutionary traps

Ecological consequences of phenotypic plasticity

“…keystone predator effects, exploitative competition or trophic cascades). Ecological trap: a specific type of evolutionary trap in which cues for habitat choice are altered and become less reliable [45]. Genotype-by-environment interaction (GxE): in population genetic experiments, phenotypic variance can be partitioned by apparent causal agents: the component of phenotypic variation owing to differences in genotype (G), the component of variation attributable solely to environmental factors (E), and the component of variation that is due to differences among genotypes in their response to environmental factors (GxE).…”

“…as a result of anthropogenic effects) and negatively affect populations. When this happens, it is referred to as an evolutionary trap [45]. For example, mayflies use polarized light, which indicates the presence of water, as a cue for where to lay their eggs.…”

Developmental plasticity in vision and behavior may help guppies overcome increased turbidity

“…In the context of environmental change, responses to instant environmental change as an adult may favor activational plasticity, whereas environmental change that occurs and is stable through development may allow for developmental plasticity (Snell-Rood 2013). Due to the rapid nature of human-induced environmental change, a high degree of non-reversible developmental plasticity for long-lived organisms might portend evolutionary and ecological traps (Schlaepfer et al 2002;Robertson et al 2013), but for short-lived organisms such as guppies, developmental plasticity may occur on a short enough timescale to promote the formation of integrated adult phenotypes well-suited to cope with environmental change. Specifically regarding turbidity in Trinidadian streams, all guppies must deal with seasonal fluctuations in turbidity due to pulses of sedimentation during rains, but reaches of some streams are turbid much of the year due to human activity (e.g., rock quarrying and deforestation)-long enough to remain turbid 1 3 through the entire development of guppies through adulthood (SME, unpublished data).…”

Natural and anthropogenic drivers of cub recruitment in a large carnivore

“…However, burning can accelerate habitat conversion and increase habitat homogeneity, while attracting small ungulates (Anderson et al., 2016), the preferred prey species of female cheetahs with cubs (Broekhuis et al., 2018). Burning could therefore create an “ecological trap” by attracting female cheetahs to open areas where prey abundance is high, but cub recruitment is low (Schlaepfer, Runge, & Sherman, 2002). …”