Top‐down control by an aquatic invertebrate predator increases with temperature but does not depend on individual behavioral type
| Autor: | Zuri D. Burns, Travis Ingram |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
backswimmer Population Biology Notonectidae 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Zooplankton Intraspecific competition lcsh:QH540-549.5 Phytoplankton Trophic cascade education Predator Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Nature and Landscape Conservation education.field_of_study Ecology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology activity biology.organism_classification animal personality Food web trophic cascade reaction norm lcsh:Ecology |
| Zdroj: | Ecology and Evolution, Vol 8, Iss 16, Pp 8256-8265 (2018) |
| ISSN: | 2045-7758 |
| Popis: | Variation in behavioral traits among individuals within a population can have implications for food webs and ecosystems. Temperature change also alters food web structure and function, but potential interactions between warming and intraspecific behavioral variation are largely unexplored. We aimed to test how increased temperature, individual activity level of a predatory backswimmer (Anisops assimilis), and their interaction influenced the strength of top‐down control of zooplankton and phytoplankton. We used stable isotopes to support our assumption that the study population of A. assimilis is zooplanktivorous, and behavioral trials to confirm that activity level is a repeatable trait. We established freshwater microcosms to test for effects of warming, backswimmer presence, and backswimmer behavioral type on zooplankton density, zooplankton composition, and phytoplankton chlorophyll a. Top‐down control was present and was generally stronger at increased temperature. There was no indication that predator behavioral type influenced the strength of top‐down control either on its own or interactively with temperature. Predator behavioral type may not be associated with ecologically important function in this species at the temporal and spatial scales addressed in this study, but the links between behavior, temperature, and food web processes are worthy of broader exploration. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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