Degraded Environments Alter Prey Risk Assessment

Ecology and Evolution

Oona M. Lönnstedt¹  Mark I. McCormick¹ 

[1] ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

关键词: Chemical alarm cues;    coral degradation;    coral reefs;    Pomacentrus amboinensis;    predation;    Pseudochromis fuscus;   

DOI  :  10.1002/ece3.388

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

Elevated water temperatures, a decrease in ocean pH, and an increasing prevalence of severe storms have lead to bleaching and death of the hard corals that underpin coral reef ecosystems. As coral cover declines, fish diversity and abundance declines. How degradation of coral reefs affects behavior of reef inhabitants is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that risk assessment behaviors of prey are severely affected by coral degradation. Juvenile damselfish were exposed to visual and olfactory indicators of predation risk in healthy live, thermally bleached, and dead coral in a series of laboratory and field experiments. While fish still responded to visual cues in all habitats, they did not respond to olfactory indicators of risk in dead coral habitats, likely as a result of alteration or degradation of chemical cues. These cues are critical for learning and avoiding predators, and a failure to respond can have dramatic repercussions for survival and recruitment.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.