Parental effects enhance risk tolerance and performance in offspring.

Abstract

Predation risk can strongly influence community dynamics through its effects on prey foraging decisions that often involve habitat shifts (i.e., from risky to refuge habitats). Although the within-generation effects of risk on prey are well appreciated, the effects of parental experience with risk on offspring decision-making and growth are poorly understood. The capacity of parents to prepare their offspring for potential risk exposure may be adaptive when the likelihood of eventual risk exposure is high and be instrumental in shaping how offspring allocate their foraging effort and habitat use. Using a simple rocky intertidal food chain, we examined the influence of parental exposure to predator risk cues on the behavior, foraging, and tissue maintenance of offspring exposed to the presence and absence of risk. We found that offspring of risk-experienced parents were bolder. When confronted with risk, these offspring spent more time out of refuge habitat, foraged more, and maintained more tissue than offspring of risk-free parents. Thus, parental experience with risk was most important when offspring were exposed to risk. These results suggest that the effects of parental experience with predation risk on offspring traits strongly shape the transmission of risk effects in ecological communities.