Multiple stressors, state-dependence and predation risk — foraging trade-offs: toward a modern concept of trait-mediated indirect effects in communities and ecosystems

Schmitz, Oswald J.; Trussell, Geoffrey C.

doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2016.08.003

Cited by 53 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Further, Leucauge and Cyclosa are both orb‐weaver spiders and they also displayed distict responses in their host and transplanted environments suggesting differences in their thermal sensitivities. Although it was beyond the scope of this study, thermal sensitivity differences between predators and prey can potentially alter trophic interactions to a larger degree (Lemoine, 2017; Schmitz & Trussell, 2016). Our complementary laboratory and field experiments only tested the effects of changing temperatures and prey macronutrient content on predator feeding responses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature dependency of predation: Increased killing rates and prey mass consumption by predators with warming

Walker

Wilder

González

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Temperature dependency of consumer–resource interactions is fundamentally important for understanding and predicting the responses of food webs to climate change. Previous studies have shown temperature‐driven shifts in herbivore consumption rates and resource preference, but these effects remain poorly understood for predatory arthropods. Here, we investigate how predator killing rates, prey mass consumption, and macronutrient intake respond to increased temperatures using a laboratory and a field reciprocal transplant experiment. Ectothermic predators, wolf spiders (Pardosa sp.), in the lab experiment, were exposed to increased temperatures and different prey macronutrient content (high lipid/low protein and low lipid/high protein) to assess changes in their killing rates and nutritional demands. Additionally, we investigate prey mass and lipid consumption by spiders under contrasting temperatures, along an elevation gradient. We used a field reciprocal transplant experiment between low (420 masl; 26°C) and high (2,100 masl; 15°C) elevations in the Ecuadorian Andes, using wild populations of two common orb‐weaver spider species (Leucauge sp. and Cyclosa sp.) present along the elevation gradient. We found that killing rates of wolf spiders increased with warmer temperatures but were not significantly affected by prey macronutrient content, although spiders consumed significantly more lipids from lipid‐rich prey. The field reciprocal transplant experiment showed no consistent predator responses to changes in temperature along the elevational gradient. Transplanting Cyclosa sp. spiders to low‐ or high‐elevation sites did not affect their prey mass or lipid consumption rate, whereas Leucauge sp. individuals increased prey mass consumption when transplanted from the high to the low warm elevation. Our findings show that increases in temperature intensify predator killing rates, prey consumption, and lipid intake, but the responses to temperature vary between species, which may be a result of species‐specific differences in their hunting behavior and sensitivity to temperature.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature dependency of predation: Increased killing rates and prey mass consumption by predators with warming

Walker

Wilder

González

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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“…This enhanced flexibility, however, should increase the expression of both beneficial and costly traits among prey when they are exposed to predators. Of course, prey must balance the need to respond to predators with other selective forces (e.g., the abiotic stressor itself, Schmitz and Trussell ), thereby constraining their ability to express phenotypes that maximize survival against predators alone.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of embryonic experience with predation risk vary across a wave exposure gradient

Donelan

Trussell

2019

Ecosphere

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Gradients in environmental stress can alter the ecological effects of predation risk to create variable landscapes of fear that shape prey antipredator responses. Prey obtain information about their risk environment not only from their immediate experiences with predators, but also from their previous experiences, especially if they occur during particularly sensitive windows in ontogeny. Embryonic development is often a key window when an individual's experiences can have lasting effects on behavior and fitness. The propensity of embryonic experiences with predation risk to affect prey performance, however, may vary across gradients of abiotic stress. Using a rocky intertidal system, we explored whether a dominant abiotic stressor—wave exposure—modifies the influence of embryonic experience with predation risk (from the green crab, Carcinus maenas) on prey (the carnivorous snail, Nucella lapillus) traits both at emergence and as one‐year‐olds exposed to current predation risk. We found that snails from wave‐exposed, but not sheltered, populations emerged smaller from development and grew less in the absence of current risk as one‐year‐olds if they experienced risk as embryos. However, exposure to current predation risk reduced the growth and growth efficiency of one‐year‐old snails from both wave‐exposed and sheltered populations. Our results demonstrate that increased environmental stress can modify predator–prey interactions and enhance prey reliance on early life experiences with predation risk, but that direct exposure to risk later in life can strongly affect prey performance across environmental stress gradients.

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“…The effects of predation risk on prey metabolism, and, in turn, on ecosystems, is context and state dependent (Matassa et al. , Schmitz and Trussell ). Research into the eco‐physiological effects of predators has produced results showing both predator‐induced increases and decreases in prey growth efficiency and nutrient waste production (McPeek et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fasting or fear: disentangling the roles of predation risk and food deprivation in the nitrogen metabolism of consumers

Dalton

Tracy

Hairston

et al. 2018

Ecology

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Predators can alter nutrient cycles simply by inducing stress in prey. This stress accelerates prey's protein catabolism, nitrogen waste production, and nitrogen cycling. Yet predators also reduce the feeding rates of their prey, inducing food deprivation that is expected to slow protein catabolism and nitrogen cycling. The physiology of prey under predation risk thus balances the influences of predation risk and food deprivation, and this balance is central to understanding the role of predators in nutrient cycles. We explored the separate and combined effects of predation risk and food deprivation on prey physiology and nutrient cycling by exposing guppies (Poecilia reticulata) to predation risk and food deprivation in a 2 × 2 design. We simulated predation risk using chemical cues from a natural predator of guppies, and we created food deprivation by rationing food availability. We measured guppy response as food consumption, growth, tissue energy density, tissue carbon:nitrogen, and nitrogen (N) excretion and assimilation. We found that N-linked physiological processes (N consumption, assimilation, excretion) were strongly affected by predation risk, independent of food consumption. Guppies excreted substantially less under predation risk than they did under food deprivation or control conditions. These results suggest that predation risk, per se, triggers physiological changes in guppies that increase N retention and decrease N excretion. We suggest that slower N metabolism under predation risk is an adaptive response that minimizes protein loss in the face of predictable, predator-induced food restriction. Notably, N metabolism shares common hormonal control with food seeking behavior, and we speculate that increased N retention is a direct and immediate result of reduced food seeking under predation risk. Contrary to predation-stress-based hypotheses for how predators affect nutrient cycling by prey, our result indicates that even short-term exposure to predators may decelerate, rather than accelerate, the speed of N cycling by suppressing N turnover by prey.

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Multiple stressors, state-dependence and predation risk — foraging trade-offs: toward a modern concept of trait-mediated indirect effects in communities and ecosystems

Cited by 53 publications

References 44 publications

Temperature dependency of predation: Increased killing rates and prey mass consumption by predators with warming

Temperature dependency of predation: Increased killing rates and prey mass consumption by predators with warming

The effects of embryonic experience with predation risk vary across a wave exposure gradient

Fasting or fear: disentangling the roles of predation risk and food deprivation in the nitrogen metabolism of consumers

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