Degrading habitats and the effect of topographic complexity on risk assessment

McCormick, Mark I., and Lönnstedt, Oona M. (2013) Degrading habitats and the effect of topographic complexity on risk assessment. Ecology and Evolution, 3 (12). pp. 4221-4229.

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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.

Item ID: 30500
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2045-7758
Keywords: chemical alarm cue, coral reef fish, disturbance, olfactory cues, predator recognition, sensory compensation, visual cues
Additional Information:

© 2013 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Funders: ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University (JCU)
Projects and Grants: ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies Grant Number CE0561432
Date Deposited: 04 Dec 2013 09:27
FoR Codes: 06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0602 Ecology > 060201 Behavioural Ecology @ 100%
SEO Codes: 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9603 Climate and Climate Change > 960307 Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) @ 100%
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