Cargando…
Chemosensory Perception of Predators by Larval Amphibians Depends on Water Quality
The acquisition of sensory information by animals is central to species interactions. In aquatic environments, most taxa use chemical cues to assess predation risk and other key ecological factors. A number of laboratory studies suggest that anthropogenic pollutants can disrupt chemoreception, even...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2015
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4482611/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26114749 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131516 |
_version_ | 1782378471565033472 |
---|---|
author | Troyer, Rachael R. Turner, Andrew M. |
author_facet | Troyer, Rachael R. Turner, Andrew M. |
author_sort | Troyer, Rachael R. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The acquisition of sensory information by animals is central to species interactions. In aquatic environments, most taxa use chemical cues to assess predation risk and other key ecological factors. A number of laboratory studies suggest that anthropogenic pollutants can disrupt chemoreception, even when at low, non-toxic concentrations, but there are few tests of whether real-world variation in water quality affects chemoreception. Here we investigate whether chemosensory perception of predators by the gray treefrog, Hyla versicolor, depends on water quality. We evaluated the anti-predator response of anuran tadpoles housed in water collected from three sites that represent strong contrasts in the concentration and types of dissolved solids: de-chlorinated tap water, water from an impaired stream, and treated wastewater effluent. Behavioral assays were conducted in laboratory aquaria. Chemical cues associated with predation were generated by feeding tadpoles to dragonfly predators held in containers, and then transferring aliquots of water from dragonfly containers to experimental aquaria. Tadpoles housed in tap water responded to predator cues with an activity reduction of 49%. Tadpoles housed in stream water and wastewater effluent responded to predator cues by reducing activity by 29% and 24% respectively. The results of factorial ANOVA support the hypothesis that the response to predator cues depended on water type. These results show that alteration of the chemical environment can mediate chemical perception of predators in aquatic ecosystems. Because most aquatic species rely on chemoreception to gather information on the location of food and predators, any impairment of sensory perception likely has important ecological consequences. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4482611 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-44826112015-06-29 Chemosensory Perception of Predators by Larval Amphibians Depends on Water Quality Troyer, Rachael R. Turner, Andrew M. PLoS One Research Article The acquisition of sensory information by animals is central to species interactions. In aquatic environments, most taxa use chemical cues to assess predation risk and other key ecological factors. A number of laboratory studies suggest that anthropogenic pollutants can disrupt chemoreception, even when at low, non-toxic concentrations, but there are few tests of whether real-world variation in water quality affects chemoreception. Here we investigate whether chemosensory perception of predators by the gray treefrog, Hyla versicolor, depends on water quality. We evaluated the anti-predator response of anuran tadpoles housed in water collected from three sites that represent strong contrasts in the concentration and types of dissolved solids: de-chlorinated tap water, water from an impaired stream, and treated wastewater effluent. Behavioral assays were conducted in laboratory aquaria. Chemical cues associated with predation were generated by feeding tadpoles to dragonfly predators held in containers, and then transferring aliquots of water from dragonfly containers to experimental aquaria. Tadpoles housed in tap water responded to predator cues with an activity reduction of 49%. Tadpoles housed in stream water and wastewater effluent responded to predator cues by reducing activity by 29% and 24% respectively. The results of factorial ANOVA support the hypothesis that the response to predator cues depended on water type. These results show that alteration of the chemical environment can mediate chemical perception of predators in aquatic ecosystems. Because most aquatic species rely on chemoreception to gather information on the location of food and predators, any impairment of sensory perception likely has important ecological consequences. Public Library of Science 2015-06-26 /pmc/articles/PMC4482611/ /pubmed/26114749 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131516 Text en © 2015 Troyer, Turner 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 Troyer, Rachael R. Turner, Andrew M. Chemosensory Perception of Predators by Larval Amphibians Depends on Water Quality |
title | Chemosensory Perception of Predators by Larval Amphibians Depends on Water Quality |
title_full | Chemosensory Perception of Predators by Larval Amphibians Depends on Water Quality |
title_fullStr | Chemosensory Perception of Predators by Larval Amphibians Depends on Water Quality |
title_full_unstemmed | Chemosensory Perception of Predators by Larval Amphibians Depends on Water Quality |
title_short | Chemosensory Perception of Predators by Larval Amphibians Depends on Water Quality |
title_sort | chemosensory perception of predators by larval amphibians depends on water quality |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4482611/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26114749 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131516 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT troyerrachaelr chemosensoryperceptionofpredatorsbylarvalamphibiansdependsonwaterquality AT turnerandrewm chemosensoryperceptionofpredatorsbylarvalamphibiansdependsonwaterquality |