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Fear effects associated with predator presence and habitat structure interact to alter herbivory on coral reefs

Andrew G. Bauman, Jovena C. L. Seah, Fraser Januchowski-Hartley Orcid Logo, Andrew S. Hoey, Jenny Fong, Peter A. Todd

Biology Letters, Volume: 15, Issue: 10, Start page: 20190409

Swansea University Author: Fraser Januchowski-Hartley Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0409

Abstract

Foraging decisions made by consumers are driven by a range of factors, including non-consumptive predation effects. These effects are often mediated by both the presence or absence of predators, and the structure of the surrounding habitat that may visually occlude prey, thus increasing the predatio...

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Published in: Biology Letters
ISSN: 1744-9561 1744-957X
Published: 2019
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52390
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spelling 2019-10-09T18:22:04.2698846 v2 52390 2019-10-09 Fear effects associated with predator presence and habitat structure interact to alter herbivory on coral reefs 77e5e32d2047f69a621d6d810ff9299b 0000-0003-2468-8199 Fraser Januchowski-Hartley Fraser Januchowski-Hartley true false 2019-10-09 SBI Foraging decisions made by consumers are driven by a range of factors, including non-consumptive predation effects. These effects are often mediated by both the presence or absence of predators, and the structure of the surrounding habitat that may visually occlude prey, thus increasing the predation risk. Under such circumstances, it is likely that prey will be warier, and this will be reflected in their rates of browsing. We used models of the predatory coral reef fish Plectropomus leopardus and experimentally manipulated the density of the macroalga Sargassum ilicifolium to investigate how these factors interact on a coral reef in Singapore. We found that the interaction between predator- and habitat associated fear effects influence the rate of herbivory, with declining rates with increasing macroalgal density, likely due to visual occlusion by macroalgae making it more difficult to detect predators, and thus increasing wariness in browsers. The predator model appeared to have an impact on browsing, but only at low-densities of Sargassum. Our results suggest that when fishes' knowledge of their surroundings is less certain, they will respond with a heightened wariness, regardless of acute predation cues. Journal Article Biology Letters 15 10 20190409 1744-9561 1744-957X risk effects, coral reefs, predator-prey interactions, herbivory, Sargassum 31 10 2019 2019-10-31 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0409 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences COLLEGE CODE SBI Swansea University 2019-10-09T18:22:04.2698846 2019-10-09T15:00:53.3430212 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Andrew G. Bauman 1 Jovena C. L. Seah 2 Fraser Januchowski-Hartley 0000-0003-2468-8199 3 Andrew S. Hoey 4 Jenny Fong 5 Peter A. Todd 6 0052390-09102019182052.pdf 52390.pdf 2019-10-09T18:20:52.3170000 Output 307951 application/pdf Accepted Manuscript true 2019-10-08T00:00:00.0000000 true eng
title Fear effects associated with predator presence and habitat structure interact to alter herbivory on coral reefs
spellingShingle Fear effects associated with predator presence and habitat structure interact to alter herbivory on coral reefs
Fraser Januchowski-Hartley
title_short Fear effects associated with predator presence and habitat structure interact to alter herbivory on coral reefs
title_full Fear effects associated with predator presence and habitat structure interact to alter herbivory on coral reefs
title_fullStr Fear effects associated with predator presence and habitat structure interact to alter herbivory on coral reefs
title_full_unstemmed Fear effects associated with predator presence and habitat structure interact to alter herbivory on coral reefs
title_sort Fear effects associated with predator presence and habitat structure interact to alter herbivory on coral reefs
author_id_str_mv 77e5e32d2047f69a621d6d810ff9299b
author_id_fullname_str_mv 77e5e32d2047f69a621d6d810ff9299b_***_Fraser Januchowski-Hartley
author Fraser Januchowski-Hartley
author2 Andrew G. Bauman
Jovena C. L. Seah
Fraser Januchowski-Hartley
Andrew S. Hoey
Jenny Fong
Peter A. Todd
format Journal article
container_title Biology Letters
container_volume 15
container_issue 10
container_start_page 20190409
publishDate 2019
institution Swansea University
issn 1744-9561
1744-957X
doi_str_mv 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0409
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Foraging decisions made by consumers are driven by a range of factors, including non-consumptive predation effects. These effects are often mediated by both the presence or absence of predators, and the structure of the surrounding habitat that may visually occlude prey, thus increasing the predation risk. Under such circumstances, it is likely that prey will be warier, and this will be reflected in their rates of browsing. We used models of the predatory coral reef fish Plectropomus leopardus and experimentally manipulated the density of the macroalga Sargassum ilicifolium to investigate how these factors interact on a coral reef in Singapore. We found that the interaction between predator- and habitat associated fear effects influence the rate of herbivory, with declining rates with increasing macroalgal density, likely due to visual occlusion by macroalgae making it more difficult to detect predators, and thus increasing wariness in browsers. The predator model appeared to have an impact on browsing, but only at low-densities of Sargassum. Our results suggest that when fishes' knowledge of their surroundings is less certain, they will respond with a heightened wariness, regardless of acute predation cues.
published_date 2019-10-31T04:04:43Z
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score 11.036006

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