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Plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber under shifting hydrodynamic forces

Marine invertebrates that move too slowly to evade unfavorable environmental change may instead exhibit phenotypic plasticity, allowing them to adjust to varying conditions. The orange-footed sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa is a slow-moving suspension feeder that is preyed on by the purple sunstar S...

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Autores principales: Brown, Nicholas A W, Wilson, David R, Gagnon, Patrick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6911852/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31857815
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy100
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author Brown, Nicholas A W
Wilson, David R
Gagnon, Patrick
author_facet Brown, Nicholas A W
Wilson, David R
Gagnon, Patrick
author_sort Brown, Nicholas A W
collection PubMed
description Marine invertebrates that move too slowly to evade unfavorable environmental change may instead exhibit phenotypic plasticity, allowing them to adjust to varying conditions. The orange-footed sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa is a slow-moving suspension feeder that is preyed on by the purple sunstar Solaster endeca. The sea cucumber’s antipredator behavior involves changing shape and detaching from the substratum, which might increase its probability of being displaced by water motion into an unsuitable environment. We hypothesized that sea cucumbers’ antipredator responses would be diminished under stronger hydrodynamic forces, and that behavioral strategies would be flexible so that individuals could adjust to frequent changes in water flows. In a natural orange-footed sea cucumber habitat, individuals lived along a pronounced hydrodynamic gradient, allowing us to measure antipredator behavior under different water flow strengths. We placed purple sunstars in physical contact with sea cucumbers living at various points along the gradient to elicit antipredator responses. We then repeated this procedure in a laboratory mesocosm that generated weak and strong hydrodynamic forces similar to those observed at the field site. Subjects in the mesocosm experiment were tested in both wave conditions to determine if their antipredator behavior would change in response to sudden environmental change, as would be experienced under deteriorating sea conditions. Antipredator responses did not covary with hydrodynamic forces in the field. However, antipredator responses in the mesocosm experiment increased when individuals were transplanted from strong to weak forces and decreased when transplanted from weak to strong forces. Overall, our results indicate environmentally induced plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber.
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spelling pubmed-69118522019-12-19 Plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber under shifting hydrodynamic forces Brown, Nicholas A W Wilson, David R Gagnon, Patrick Curr Zool Articles Marine invertebrates that move too slowly to evade unfavorable environmental change may instead exhibit phenotypic plasticity, allowing them to adjust to varying conditions. The orange-footed sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa is a slow-moving suspension feeder that is preyed on by the purple sunstar Solaster endeca. The sea cucumber’s antipredator behavior involves changing shape and detaching from the substratum, which might increase its probability of being displaced by water motion into an unsuitable environment. We hypothesized that sea cucumbers’ antipredator responses would be diminished under stronger hydrodynamic forces, and that behavioral strategies would be flexible so that individuals could adjust to frequent changes in water flows. In a natural orange-footed sea cucumber habitat, individuals lived along a pronounced hydrodynamic gradient, allowing us to measure antipredator behavior under different water flow strengths. We placed purple sunstars in physical contact with sea cucumbers living at various points along the gradient to elicit antipredator responses. We then repeated this procedure in a laboratory mesocosm that generated weak and strong hydrodynamic forces similar to those observed at the field site. Subjects in the mesocosm experiment were tested in both wave conditions to determine if their antipredator behavior would change in response to sudden environmental change, as would be experienced under deteriorating sea conditions. Antipredator responses did not covary with hydrodynamic forces in the field. However, antipredator responses in the mesocosm experiment increased when individuals were transplanted from strong to weak forces and decreased when transplanted from weak to strong forces. Overall, our results indicate environmentally induced plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber. Oxford University Press 2019-12 2019-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6911852/ /pubmed/31857815 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy100 Text en © The Author(s) (2019). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Editorial Office, Current Zoology. 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 reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Articles
Brown, Nicholas A W
Wilson, David R
Gagnon, Patrick
Plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber under shifting hydrodynamic forces
title Plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber under shifting hydrodynamic forces
title_full Plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber under shifting hydrodynamic forces
title_fullStr Plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber under shifting hydrodynamic forces
title_full_unstemmed Plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber under shifting hydrodynamic forces
title_short Plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber under shifting hydrodynamic forces
title_sort plasticity in the antipredator behavior of the orange-footed sea cucumber under shifting hydrodynamic forces
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6911852/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31857815
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy100
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