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Facilitation and Dominance in a Schooling Predator: Foraging Behavior of Florida Pompano, Trachinotus carolinus

Presumably an individual’s risk of predation is reduced by group membership and this ‘safety in numbers’ concept has been readily applied to investigations of schooling prey; however, foraging in groups may also be beneficial. We tested the hypothesis that, when feeding in groups, foraging of a coas...

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Autores principales: Schrandt, Meagan N., Powers, Sean P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4466254/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26068114
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130095
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author Schrandt, Meagan N.
Powers, Sean P.
author_facet Schrandt, Meagan N.
Powers, Sean P.
author_sort Schrandt, Meagan N.
collection PubMed
description Presumably an individual’s risk of predation is reduced by group membership and this ‘safety in numbers’ concept has been readily applied to investigations of schooling prey; however, foraging in groups may also be beneficial. We tested the hypothesis that, when feeding in groups, foraging of a coastal fish (Florida Pompano, Trachinotus carolinus) on a benthic prey source would be facilitated (i.e. fish feeding in groups will consume more prey items). Although this question has been addressed for other fish species, it has not been previously addressed for Florida Pompano, a fish known to exhibit schooling behavior and that is used for aquaculture, where understanding the feeding ecology is important for healthy and efficient grow-out. In this experiment, juvenile Florida Pompano were offered a fixed number of coquina clams (Donax spp.) for one hour either in a group or as individuals. The following day they were tested in the opposite configuration. Fish in groups achieved greater consumption (average of 26 clams consumed by the entire group) than the individuals comprising the group (average of 14 clams consumed [sum of clams consumed by all individuals of the group]). Fish in groups also had fewer unsuccessful foraging attempts (2.75 compared to 4.75 hr(-1)) and tended to have a shorter latency until the first feeding activity. Our results suggest fish in groups were more comfortable feeding and more successful in their feeding attempts. Interestingly, the consumption benefit of group foraging was not shared by all – not all fish within a group consumed equal numbers of clams. Taken together, the results support our hypothesis that foraging in a group provides facilitation, but the short-term benefits are not equally shared by all individuals.
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spelling pubmed-44662542015-06-25 Facilitation and Dominance in a Schooling Predator: Foraging Behavior of Florida Pompano, Trachinotus carolinus Schrandt, Meagan N. Powers, Sean P. PLoS One Research Article Presumably an individual’s risk of predation is reduced by group membership and this ‘safety in numbers’ concept has been readily applied to investigations of schooling prey; however, foraging in groups may also be beneficial. We tested the hypothesis that, when feeding in groups, foraging of a coastal fish (Florida Pompano, Trachinotus carolinus) on a benthic prey source would be facilitated (i.e. fish feeding in groups will consume more prey items). Although this question has been addressed for other fish species, it has not been previously addressed for Florida Pompano, a fish known to exhibit schooling behavior and that is used for aquaculture, where understanding the feeding ecology is important for healthy and efficient grow-out. In this experiment, juvenile Florida Pompano were offered a fixed number of coquina clams (Donax spp.) for one hour either in a group or as individuals. The following day they were tested in the opposite configuration. Fish in groups achieved greater consumption (average of 26 clams consumed by the entire group) than the individuals comprising the group (average of 14 clams consumed [sum of clams consumed by all individuals of the group]). Fish in groups also had fewer unsuccessful foraging attempts (2.75 compared to 4.75 hr(-1)) and tended to have a shorter latency until the first feeding activity. Our results suggest fish in groups were more comfortable feeding and more successful in their feeding attempts. Interestingly, the consumption benefit of group foraging was not shared by all – not all fish within a group consumed equal numbers of clams. Taken together, the results support our hypothesis that foraging in a group provides facilitation, but the short-term benefits are not equally shared by all individuals. Public Library of Science 2015-06-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4466254/ /pubmed/26068114 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130095 Text en © 2015 Schrandt, Powers 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
Schrandt, Meagan N.
Powers, Sean P.
Facilitation and Dominance in a Schooling Predator: Foraging Behavior of Florida Pompano, Trachinotus carolinus
title Facilitation and Dominance in a Schooling Predator: Foraging Behavior of Florida Pompano, Trachinotus carolinus
title_full Facilitation and Dominance in a Schooling Predator: Foraging Behavior of Florida Pompano, Trachinotus carolinus
title_fullStr Facilitation and Dominance in a Schooling Predator: Foraging Behavior of Florida Pompano, Trachinotus carolinus
title_full_unstemmed Facilitation and Dominance in a Schooling Predator: Foraging Behavior of Florida Pompano, Trachinotus carolinus
title_short Facilitation and Dominance in a Schooling Predator: Foraging Behavior of Florida Pompano, Trachinotus carolinus
title_sort facilitation and dominance in a schooling predator: foraging behavior of florida pompano, trachinotus carolinus
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4466254/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26068114
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130095
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