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Degradation of chemical alarm cues and assessment of risk throughout the day
The use of chemical information in assessment of predation risk is pervasive across animal taxa. However, by its very nature, chemical information can be temporally unreliable. Chemical cues persist for some period of time after they are released into the environment. Yet, we know surprisingly littl...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3810885/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24198950 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.760 |
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author | Chivers, Douglas P Dixson, Danielle L White, James R McCormick, Mark I Ferrari, Maud C O |
author_facet | Chivers, Douglas P Dixson, Danielle L White, James R McCormick, Mark I Ferrari, Maud C O |
author_sort | Chivers, Douglas P |
collection | PubMed |
description | The use of chemical information in assessment of predation risk is pervasive across animal taxa. However, by its very nature, chemical information can be temporally unreliable. Chemical cues persist for some period of time after they are released into the environment. Yet, we know surprisingly little about the rate of degradation of chemical cues under natural conditions and hence little about how they function in temporal risk assessment under natural conditions. Here, we conducted an experiment to identify a concentration of fresh alarm cues that evoke a strong antipredator response in coral reef damselfish, Pomacentrus ambonensis. We then tested the rate at which these alarm cues degraded under natural conditions in ocean water, paying attention to whether the rate of degradation varied throughout the day and whether the temporal pattern correlated with physicochemical factors that could influence the rate of degradation. Fresh alarm cues released into ocean water evoke strong avoidance responses in juvenile fish, while those aged for 30 min no longer evoke antipredator responses. Fish exposed to cues aged for 10 or 20 min show intermediate avoidance responses. We found a marked temporal pattern of response throughout the day, with much faster degradation in early to mid-afternoon, the time of day when solar radiation, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH are nearing their peak. Ecologists have spent considerable effort elucidating the role of chemical information in mediating predator–prey interactions, yet we know almost nothing about the temporal dynamics of risk assessment using chemical information. We are in dire need of additional comparative field experiments on the rate of breakdown of chemical cues, particularly given that global change in UV radiation, temperature, and water chemistry could be altering the rates of degradation and the potential use of this information in risk assessment. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3810885 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-38108852013-11-06 Degradation of chemical alarm cues and assessment of risk throughout the day Chivers, Douglas P Dixson, Danielle L White, James R McCormick, Mark I Ferrari, Maud C O Ecol Evol Original Research The use of chemical information in assessment of predation risk is pervasive across animal taxa. However, by its very nature, chemical information can be temporally unreliable. Chemical cues persist for some period of time after they are released into the environment. Yet, we know surprisingly little about the rate of degradation of chemical cues under natural conditions and hence little about how they function in temporal risk assessment under natural conditions. Here, we conducted an experiment to identify a concentration of fresh alarm cues that evoke a strong antipredator response in coral reef damselfish, Pomacentrus ambonensis. We then tested the rate at which these alarm cues degraded under natural conditions in ocean water, paying attention to whether the rate of degradation varied throughout the day and whether the temporal pattern correlated with physicochemical factors that could influence the rate of degradation. Fresh alarm cues released into ocean water evoke strong avoidance responses in juvenile fish, while those aged for 30 min no longer evoke antipredator responses. Fish exposed to cues aged for 10 or 20 min show intermediate avoidance responses. We found a marked temporal pattern of response throughout the day, with much faster degradation in early to mid-afternoon, the time of day when solar radiation, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH are nearing their peak. Ecologists have spent considerable effort elucidating the role of chemical information in mediating predator–prey interactions, yet we know almost nothing about the temporal dynamics of risk assessment using chemical information. We are in dire need of additional comparative field experiments on the rate of breakdown of chemical cues, particularly given that global change in UV radiation, temperature, and water chemistry could be altering the rates of degradation and the potential use of this information in risk assessment. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2013-10 2013-09-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3810885/ /pubmed/24198950 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.760 Text en © 2013 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Re-use of this article is permitted in accordance with the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5, which does not permit commercial exploitation. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Chivers, Douglas P Dixson, Danielle L White, James R McCormick, Mark I Ferrari, Maud C O Degradation of chemical alarm cues and assessment of risk throughout the day |
title | Degradation of chemical alarm cues and assessment of risk throughout the day |
title_full | Degradation of chemical alarm cues and assessment of risk throughout the day |
title_fullStr | Degradation of chemical alarm cues and assessment of risk throughout the day |
title_full_unstemmed | Degradation of chemical alarm cues and assessment of risk throughout the day |
title_short | Degradation of chemical alarm cues and assessment of risk throughout the day |
title_sort | degradation of chemical alarm cues and assessment of risk throughout the day |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3810885/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24198950 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.760 |
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