Prey Responses to Predator Chemical Cues: Disentangling the Importance of the Number and Biomass of Prey Consumed

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dc.contributor.authorMcCoy, Michael W.
dc.contributor.authorTouchon, Justin C.
dc.contributor.authorLandberg, Tobias
dc.contributor.authorWarkentin, Karen M.
dc.contributor.authorVonesh, James R.
dc.date.accessioned2016-06-07T15:49:38Z
dc.date.available2016-06-07T15:49:38Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractTo effectively balance investment in predator defenses versus other traits, organisms must accurately assess predation risk. Chemical cues caused by predation events are indicators of risk for prey in a wide variety of systems, but the relationship between how prey perceive risk in relation to the amount of prey consumed by predators is poorly understood. While per capita predation rate is often used as the metric of relative risk, studies aimed at quantifying predator-induced defenses commonly control biomass of prey consumed as the metric of risk. However, biomass consumed can change by altering either the number or size of prey consumed. In this study we determine whether phenotypic plasticity to predator chemical cues depends upon prey biomass consumed, prey number consumed, or both. We examine the growth response of red-eyed treefrog tadpoles (Agalychnis callidryas) to cues from a larval dragonfly (Anax amazili). Biomass consumed was manipulated by either increasing the number of prey while holding individual prey size constant, or by holding the number of prey constant and varying individual prey size. We address two questions. (i) Do prey reduce growth rate in response to chemical cues in a dose dependent manner? (ii) Does the magnitude of the response depend on whether prey consumption increases via number or size of prey? We find that the phenotypic response of prey is an asymptotic function of prey biomass consumed. However, the asymptotic response is higher when more prey are consumed. Our findings have important implications for evaluating past studies and how future experiments should be designed. A stronger response to predation cues generated by more individual prey deaths is consistent with models that predict prey sensitivity to per capita risk, providing a more direct link between empirical and theoretical studies which are often focused on changes in population sizes not individual biomass.en_US
dc.identifier.citationPLoS ONE; 7:10 p. 1-5en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0047495
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.pmidpmc3474732en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10342/5479
dc.relation.urihttp://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0047495en_US
dc.subjectPredationen_US
dc.subjectTadpolesen_US
dc.subjectBiomass (ecology)en_US
dc.subjectPhenotypesen_US
dc.subjectFood web structureen_US
dc.subjectPondsen_US
dc.subjectMesocosmsen_US
dc.titlePrey Responses to Predator Chemical Cues: Disentangling the Importance of the Number and Biomass of Prey Consumeden_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
ecu.journal.issue10en_US
ecu.journal.namePLoS ONEen_US
ecu.journal.pages1-5en_US
ecu.journal.volume7en_US

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