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Intrageneric differences in the effects of acute temperature exposure on competitive behaviour of damselfishes

Projected increases in global temperatures brought on by climate change threaten to disrupt many biological and ecological processes. Tropical ectotherms, like many fishes, can be particularly susceptible to temperature change as they occupy environments with narrow thermal fluctuations. While clima...

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Autores principales: Warren, Donald T., McCormick, Mark I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6642626/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31346499
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7320
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author Warren, Donald T.
McCormick, Mark I.
author_facet Warren, Donald T.
McCormick, Mark I.
author_sort Warren, Donald T.
collection PubMed
description Projected increases in global temperatures brought on by climate change threaten to disrupt many biological and ecological processes. Tropical ectotherms, like many fishes, can be particularly susceptible to temperature change as they occupy environments with narrow thermal fluctuations. While climate change models predict temperatures to increase over decades, thermal fluctuations are already experienced on a seasonal scale, which may affect the ability to capture and defend resources across a thermal gradient. For coral reef fish, losers of competitive interactions are often more vulnerable to predation, and this pressure is strongest just after settlement. Competitive interactions may determine future success for coral reef fishes, and understanding how temperature experienced during settlement can influence such interactions will give insight to community dynamics in a future warmer world. We tested the effect of increased temperatures on intraspecific competitive interactions of two sympatric species of reef damselfish, the blue damselfish Pomacentrus nagasakiensis, and the whitetail damselfish Pomacentrus chrysurus. Juvenile fishes were exposed to one of four temperature treatments, ranging from 26–32 °C, for seven days then placed into competitive arenas where aggressive interactions were recorded between sized matched individuals within each species. While there was no apparent effect of temperature treatment on aggressive behaviour for P. chrysurus, we observed up to a four-fold increase in aggression scores for P. nagasakiensis with increasing temperature. Results suggest that temperature experienced as juveniles can impact aggressive behaviour; however, species-specific thermal tolerances led to behavioural affects that differ among closely related species. Differential thermal tolerance among species may cause restructuring of the interaction network that underlies the structure of reef assemblages.
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spelling pubmed-66426262019-07-25 Intrageneric differences in the effects of acute temperature exposure on competitive behaviour of damselfishes Warren, Donald T. McCormick, Mark I. PeerJ Animal Behavior Projected increases in global temperatures brought on by climate change threaten to disrupt many biological and ecological processes. Tropical ectotherms, like many fishes, can be particularly susceptible to temperature change as they occupy environments with narrow thermal fluctuations. While climate change models predict temperatures to increase over decades, thermal fluctuations are already experienced on a seasonal scale, which may affect the ability to capture and defend resources across a thermal gradient. For coral reef fish, losers of competitive interactions are often more vulnerable to predation, and this pressure is strongest just after settlement. Competitive interactions may determine future success for coral reef fishes, and understanding how temperature experienced during settlement can influence such interactions will give insight to community dynamics in a future warmer world. We tested the effect of increased temperatures on intraspecific competitive interactions of two sympatric species of reef damselfish, the blue damselfish Pomacentrus nagasakiensis, and the whitetail damselfish Pomacentrus chrysurus. Juvenile fishes were exposed to one of four temperature treatments, ranging from 26–32 °C, for seven days then placed into competitive arenas where aggressive interactions were recorded between sized matched individuals within each species. While there was no apparent effect of temperature treatment on aggressive behaviour for P. chrysurus, we observed up to a four-fold increase in aggression scores for P. nagasakiensis with increasing temperature. Results suggest that temperature experienced as juveniles can impact aggressive behaviour; however, species-specific thermal tolerances led to behavioural affects that differ among closely related species. Differential thermal tolerance among species may cause restructuring of the interaction network that underlies the structure of reef assemblages. PeerJ Inc. 2019-07-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6642626/ /pubmed/31346499 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7320 Text en ©2019 Warren and McCormick http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Warren, Donald T.
McCormick, Mark I.
Intrageneric differences in the effects of acute temperature exposure on competitive behaviour of damselfishes
title Intrageneric differences in the effects of acute temperature exposure on competitive behaviour of damselfishes
title_full Intrageneric differences in the effects of acute temperature exposure on competitive behaviour of damselfishes
title_fullStr Intrageneric differences in the effects of acute temperature exposure on competitive behaviour of damselfishes
title_full_unstemmed Intrageneric differences in the effects of acute temperature exposure on competitive behaviour of damselfishes
title_short Intrageneric differences in the effects of acute temperature exposure on competitive behaviour of damselfishes
title_sort intrageneric differences in the effects of acute temperature exposure on competitive behaviour of damselfishes
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6642626/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31346499
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7320
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