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Ultimate Predators: Lionfish Have Evolved to Circumvent Prey Risk Assessment Abilities

Invasive species cause catastrophic alterations to communities worldwide by changing the trophic balance within ecosystems. Ever since their introduction in the mid 1980's common red lionfish, Pterois volitans, are having dramatic impacts on the Caribbean ecosystem by displacing native species...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lönnstedt, Oona M., McCormick, Mark I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24146775
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075781
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author Lönnstedt, Oona M.
McCormick, Mark I.
author_facet Lönnstedt, Oona M.
McCormick, Mark I.
author_sort Lönnstedt, Oona M.
collection PubMed
description Invasive species cause catastrophic alterations to communities worldwide by changing the trophic balance within ecosystems. Ever since their introduction in the mid 1980's common red lionfish, Pterois volitans, are having dramatic impacts on the Caribbean ecosystem by displacing native species and disrupting food webs. Introduced lionfish capture prey at extraordinary rates, altering the composition of benthic communities. Here we demonstrate that the extraordinary success of the introduced lionfish lies in its capacity to circumvent prey risk assessment abilities as it is virtually undetectable by prey species in its native range. While experienced prey damselfish, Chromis viridis, respond with typical antipredator behaviours when exposed to a common predatory rock cod (Cephalopholis microprion) they fail to visibly react to either the scent or visual presentation of the red lionfish, and responded only to the scent (not the visual cue) of a lionfish of a different genus, Dendrochirus zebra. Experienced prey also had much higher survival when exposed to the two non-invasive predators compared to P. volitans. The cryptic nature of the red lionfish has enabled it to be destructive as a predator and a highly successful invasive species.
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spelling pubmed-37977512013-10-21 Ultimate Predators: Lionfish Have Evolved to Circumvent Prey Risk Assessment Abilities Lönnstedt, Oona M. McCormick, Mark I. PLoS One Research Article Invasive species cause catastrophic alterations to communities worldwide by changing the trophic balance within ecosystems. Ever since their introduction in the mid 1980's common red lionfish, Pterois volitans, are having dramatic impacts on the Caribbean ecosystem by displacing native species and disrupting food webs. Introduced lionfish capture prey at extraordinary rates, altering the composition of benthic communities. Here we demonstrate that the extraordinary success of the introduced lionfish lies in its capacity to circumvent prey risk assessment abilities as it is virtually undetectable by prey species in its native range. While experienced prey damselfish, Chromis viridis, respond with typical antipredator behaviours when exposed to a common predatory rock cod (Cephalopholis microprion) they fail to visibly react to either the scent or visual presentation of the red lionfish, and responded only to the scent (not the visual cue) of a lionfish of a different genus, Dendrochirus zebra. Experienced prey also had much higher survival when exposed to the two non-invasive predators compared to P. volitans. The cryptic nature of the red lionfish has enabled it to be destructive as a predator and a highly successful invasive species. Public Library of Science 2013-10-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3797751/ /pubmed/24146775 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075781 Text en © 2013 Lönnstedt, McCormick http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lönnstedt, Oona M.
McCormick, Mark I.
Ultimate Predators: Lionfish Have Evolved to Circumvent Prey Risk Assessment Abilities
title Ultimate Predators: Lionfish Have Evolved to Circumvent Prey Risk Assessment Abilities
title_full Ultimate Predators: Lionfish Have Evolved to Circumvent Prey Risk Assessment Abilities
title_fullStr Ultimate Predators: Lionfish Have Evolved to Circumvent Prey Risk Assessment Abilities
title_full_unstemmed Ultimate Predators: Lionfish Have Evolved to Circumvent Prey Risk Assessment Abilities
title_short Ultimate Predators: Lionfish Have Evolved to Circumvent Prey Risk Assessment Abilities
title_sort ultimate predators: lionfish have evolved to circumvent prey risk assessment abilities
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797751/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24146775
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075781
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