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Keystone nonconsumptive effects within a diverse predator community

The number of prey killed by diverse predator communities is determined by complementarity and interference among predators, and by traits of particular predator species. However, it is less clear how predators' nonconsumptive effects (NCEs) scale with increasing predator biodiversity. We exami...

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Autores principales: Meadows, Amanda J., Owen, Jeb P., Snyder, William E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5723625/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29238557
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3392
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author Meadows, Amanda J.
Owen, Jeb P.
Snyder, William E.
author_facet Meadows, Amanda J.
Owen, Jeb P.
Snyder, William E.
author_sort Meadows, Amanda J.
collection PubMed
description The number of prey killed by diverse predator communities is determined by complementarity and interference among predators, and by traits of particular predator species. However, it is less clear how predators' nonconsumptive effects (NCEs) scale with increasing predator biodiversity. We examined NCEs exerted on Culex mosquitoes by a diverse community of aquatic predators. In the field, mosquito larvae co‐occurred with differing densities and species compositions of mesopredator insects; top predator dragonfly naiads were present in roughly half of surveyed water bodies. We reproduced these predator community features in artificial ponds, exposing mosquito larvae to predator cues and measuring resulting effects on mosquito traits throughout development. Nonconsumptive effects of various combinations of mesopredator species reduced the survival of mosquito larvae to pupation, and reduced the size and longevity of adult mosquitoes that later emerged from the water. Intriguingly, adding single dragonfly naiads to ponds restored survivorship of larval mosquitoes to levels seen in the absence of predators, and further decreased adult mosquito longevity compared with mosquitoes emerging from mesopredator treatments. Behavioral observations revealed that mosquito larvae regularly deployed “diving” escape behavior in the presence of the mesopredators, but not when a dragonfly naiad was also present. This suggests that dragonflies may have relaxed NCEs of the mesopredators by causing mosquitoes to abandon energetically costly diving. Our study demonstrates that adding one individual of a functionally unique species can substantially alter community‐wide NCEs of predators on prey. For pathogen vectors like mosquitoes, this could in turn influence disease dynamics.
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spelling pubmed-57236252017-12-13 Keystone nonconsumptive effects within a diverse predator community Meadows, Amanda J. Owen, Jeb P. Snyder, William E. Ecol Evol Original Research The number of prey killed by diverse predator communities is determined by complementarity and interference among predators, and by traits of particular predator species. However, it is less clear how predators' nonconsumptive effects (NCEs) scale with increasing predator biodiversity. We examined NCEs exerted on Culex mosquitoes by a diverse community of aquatic predators. In the field, mosquito larvae co‐occurred with differing densities and species compositions of mesopredator insects; top predator dragonfly naiads were present in roughly half of surveyed water bodies. We reproduced these predator community features in artificial ponds, exposing mosquito larvae to predator cues and measuring resulting effects on mosquito traits throughout development. Nonconsumptive effects of various combinations of mesopredator species reduced the survival of mosquito larvae to pupation, and reduced the size and longevity of adult mosquitoes that later emerged from the water. Intriguingly, adding single dragonfly naiads to ponds restored survivorship of larval mosquitoes to levels seen in the absence of predators, and further decreased adult mosquito longevity compared with mosquitoes emerging from mesopredator treatments. Behavioral observations revealed that mosquito larvae regularly deployed “diving” escape behavior in the presence of the mesopredators, but not when a dragonfly naiad was also present. This suggests that dragonflies may have relaxed NCEs of the mesopredators by causing mosquitoes to abandon energetically costly diving. Our study demonstrates that adding one individual of a functionally unique species can substantially alter community‐wide NCEs of predators on prey. For pathogen vectors like mosquitoes, this could in turn influence disease dynamics. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2017-10-28 /pmc/articles/PMC5723625/ /pubmed/29238557 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3392 Text en © 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Meadows, Amanda J.
Owen, Jeb P.
Snyder, William E.
Keystone nonconsumptive effects within a diverse predator community
title Keystone nonconsumptive effects within a diverse predator community
title_full Keystone nonconsumptive effects within a diverse predator community
title_fullStr Keystone nonconsumptive effects within a diverse predator community
title_full_unstemmed Keystone nonconsumptive effects within a diverse predator community
title_short Keystone nonconsumptive effects within a diverse predator community
title_sort keystone nonconsumptive effects within a diverse predator community
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5723625/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29238557
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3392
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