| 1. |
- Vinterstare, Jerker, et al.
(författare)
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More than meets the eye : Predator-induced pupil size plasticity in a teleost fish
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Animal Ecology. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0021-8790 .- 1365-2656. ; 89:10, s. 2258-2267
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most animals are visually oriented, and their eyes provide their ‘window to the world’. Eye size correlates positively with visual performance, because larger eyes can house larger pupils that increase photon catch and contrast discrimination, particularly under dim light, which have positive effects on behaviours that enhance fitness, including predator avoidance and foraging. Recent studies have linked predation risk to selection for larger eyes and pupils, and such changes should be of importance for the majority of teleost fishes as they have a pupil that is fixed in size (eyes lack a pupillary sphincter muscle) and, hence, do not respond to changes in light conditions. Here, we quantify eye and pupil size of individual crucian carp, a common freshwater fish, following controlled manipulations of perceived predation risk (presence/absence). We also tested if crucian carp responded to increased predation risk by shifts in diel activity patterns. We found that crucian carp show phenotypic plasticity with regards to pupil size, but not eye size, as pupil size increased when exposed to predators (pike). Predator-exposed crucian carp also shifted from diurnal to nocturnal activity. Using a modelling exercise, we moreover show that the plastically enlarged pupils significantly increase visual range, especially for small objects under dim light conditions. Overall, our results provide compelling evidence for predator-induced pupil enlargement resulting in enhanced visual capabilities in a teleost fish. Pupil size plasticity in combination with the observed shift towards nocturnal activity may allow for efficient foraging also under dark conditions when predation risk from diurnal and visually oriented predators is reduced. The data highlight the powerful role of predation risk for eye development and evolution.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Pärssinen, Varpu, et al.
(författare)
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Maladaptive migration behaviour in hybrids links to predator-mediated ecological selection
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Animal Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-8790 .- 1365-2656. ; 89:11, s. 2596-2604
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Different migratory species have evolved distinct migratory characteristics that improve fitness in their particular ecological niches. However, when such species hybridize, migratory traits from parental species can combine maladaptively and cause hybrids to fall between parental fitness peaks, with potential consequences for hybrid viability and species integrity. Here, we take advantage of a natural cross-breeding incident to study migratory behaviour in naturally occurring hybrids as well as in their parental species and explore links between migratory traits and predation risk. To achieve this, we used electronic tags and passive telemetry to record detailed individual migration patterns (timing and number of migratory trips) in two common freshwater fish species, roachRutilus rutilus, common breamAbramis bramaas well as their hybrids. Next, we scanned for tags regurgitated by a key avian predator (great cormorantPhalacrocorax carbo) at nearby roosting sites, allowing us to directly link migratory behaviour to predation risk in the wild. We found that hybrid individuals showed a higher number of short, multi-trip movements between lake and stream habitats as compared to both parental species. The mean date of first lake departure differed between bream and roach by more than 10 days, while hybrids departed in two distinct peaks that overlapped with the parental species' averages. Moreover, the probability of cormorant predation increased with multi-trip movement frequency across species and was higher for hybrids. Our data provide novel insights into hybrid viability, with links to predator-mediated ecological selection. Increased exposure to predators via maladaptive migratory behaviour reduces hybrid survival and can thereby reinforce species integrity.
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| 4. |
- De Lisle, Stephen P., et al.
(författare)
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Complex community-wide consequences of consumer sexual dimorphism
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Animal Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-8790 .- 1365-2656. ; 91:5, s. 958-969
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sexual dimorphism is a ubiquitous source of within-species variation, yet the community-level consequences of sex differences remain poorly understood. Here, we analyse a bitrophic model of two competing resource species and a sexually reproducing consumer species. We show that consumer sex differences in resource acquisition can have striking consequences for consumer-resource coexistence, abundance and dynamics. Under both direct interspecific competition and apparent competition between two resource species, sexual dimorphism in consumers' attack rates can mediate coexistence of the resource species, while in other cases can lead to exclusion when stable coexistence is typically expected. Slight sex differences in total resource acquisition also can reverse competitive outcomes and lead to density cycles. These effects are expected whenever both consumer sexes require different amounts or types of resources to reproduce. Our results suggest that consumer sexual dimorphism, which is common, has wide-reaching implications for the assembly and dynamics of natural communities.
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| 5. |
- Vinterstare, Jerker, et al.
(författare)
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Defence versus defence : Are crucian carp trading off immune function against predator-induced morphology?
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Animal Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-8790 .- 1365-2656. ; 88:10, s. 1510-1521
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Numerous species adopt inducible defence strategies; that is, they have phenotypically plastic traits that decrease the risk of capture and consumption by potential predators. The benefits of expressing alternative phenotypes in high- vs. low-risk environments are well documented. However, inducible anti-predator traits are also expected to incur costs, as they are not expressed when predators are absent, yet empirical evidence of such costs remains scarce. Virtually, all animals in nature are simultaneously under strong selection to evade both capture by predators and infection by parasites or pathogens and, hence, display a diverse arsenal of defences to combat these threats, raising the possibility of trade-offs between defences. A classic example of a predator-induced morphological defence is the deep-bodied shape of crucian carp that reduces risk of predation from gape-size-limited predators. The goal of this study was to examine whether predator exposure affects also immune function in crucian carp, and whether the degree of expressed morphological defence is traded off against immune function in individuals. Following exposure to manipulations of perceived risk (predator presence/absence) in a long-term experiment (8 months), key aspects of innate immune function and individual differences in the expression of inducible morphological defence were quantified. Predator-exposed individuals showed lower haptoglobin levels and complement activity, but higher natural antibody titres than fish from predator-free conditions. When experimentally challenged with a mimicked bacterial infection (LPS injection), fish reared in the presence of a natural predator showed a weaker immune response. Moreover, among predator-exposed individuals, the magnitude of morphological defence expression correlated with both baseline immune function and the ability to mount an immune response. However, these relationships were not consistently supportive of a general trade-off among defences. Our results suggest that fish exposed to predators on average reduce investment in immune function, and, further, the observed relationships among defences in predator-exposed individuals can best be explained from individual fitness and pace-of-life perspectives.
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| 6. |
- Gómez-Llano, Miguel, et al.
(författare)
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Interactions between fitness components across the life cycle constrain competitor coexistence
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Animal Ecology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-8790 .- 1365-2656. ; 92:12, s. 2297-2308
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Numerous mechanisms can promote competitor coexistence. Yet, these mechanisms are often considered in isolation from one another. Consequently, whether multiple mechanisms shaping coexistence combine to promote or constrain species coexistence remains an open question.Here, we aim to understand how multiple mechanisms interact within and between life stages to determine frequency-dependent population growth, which has a key role stabilizing local competitor coexistence.We conducted field experiments in three lakes manipulating relative frequencies of two Enallagma damselfly species to evaluate demographic contributions of three mechanisms affecting different fitness components across the life cycle: the effect of resource competition on individual growth rate, predation shaping mortality rates, and mating harassment determining fecundity. We then used a demographic model that incorporates carry-over effects between life stages to decompose the relative effect of each fitness component generating frequency-dependent population growth.This decomposition showed that fitness components combined to increase population growth rates for one species when rare, but they combined to decrease population growth rates for the other species when rare, leading to predicted exclusion in most lakes.Because interactions between fitness components within and between life stages vary among populations, these results show that local coexistence is population specific. Moreover, we show that multiple mechanisms do not necessarily increase competitor coexistence, as they can also combine to yield exclusion. Identifying coexistence mechanisms in other systems will require greater focus on determining contributions of different fitness components across the life cycle shaping competitor coexistence in a way that captures the potential for population-level variation.
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