Abstract
Topographic complexity is a key component of habitats that influences communities by modulating the interactions among individuals that drive population processes such as recruitment, competition, and predation. A broad range of disturbance agents affect biological communities indirectly through their modifications to habitat complexity. Individuals that best judge the threat of predation within their environment and can trade-off vigilance against behaviors that promote growth will be rewarded with the highest fitness. This study experimentally examined whether topographic habitat complexity affected the way a damselfish assessed predation risk using olfactory, visual, or combined cues. Fish had higher feeding rates in the low complexity environment. In a low complexity environment, damage-released olfactory cues and visual cues of predators complemented each other in the prey's assessment of risk. However, where complexity was high and visual cues obscured, prey had lower feeding rates and relied more heavily on olfactory cues for risk assessment. Overall, fish appear to be more conservative in the high complexity treatment. Low complexity promoted extremes of behavior, with higher foraging activity but a greater response to predation threats compared with the high complexity treatment. The degree of flexibility that individuals and species have in their ability to adjust the balance of senses used in risk assessment will determine the extent to which organisms will tolerate modifications to their habitat through disturbance.
Highlights
Most natural habitats undergo frequent disturbance from biological and environmental agents (e.g., Mumby et al 2011; Brodie et al 2012), and individuals must continuously adapt and react to their changing environment or die
The present study indicates that juvenile fish are overall more cautious in high topography environments, with prey having lower feeding rates and relying on olfactory cues for risk assessment
Fish appeared to compensate for a reduction in the visual information available to them in a high topography environment by relying more on olfactory information
Summary
Most natural habitats undergo frequent disturbance from biological and environmental agents (e.g., Mumby et al 2011; Brodie et al 2012), and individuals must continuously adapt and react to their changing environment or die. The ways the prey assess the risk of predation are predicted to change as the lucidity of sensory cues will be strongly tied to prevailing habitat features. By mediating the detection of predators by prey, topographic complexity affects a range of trait-mediated predator-induced effects, such as elevated stress levels and reduced body condition (Schoener et al 2002; Clinchy et al 2013). While there is a well-documented link between reductions in habitat complexity and reduced species diversity (Hewitt et al 2005; Leal et al 2012), the extent to which this relationship is driven by changes in the way the prey assess predation risk is unknown
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