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Can species-specific prey responses to chemical cues explain prey susceptibility to predation?

Šmejkal, Marek ; Ricard, Daniel ; Sajdlová, Zuzana ; Čech, Martin ; Vejřík, Lukáš ; Blabolil, Petr ; Vejříková, Ivana ; Prchalová, Marie ; Vašek, Mojmír and Souza, Allan T. , et al. (2018) In Ecology and Evolution 8(9). p.4544-4551
Abstract

The perception of danger represents an essential ability of prey for gaining an informational advantage over their natural enemies. Especially in complex environments or at night, animals strongly rely on chemoreception to avoid predators. The ability to recognize danger by chemical cues and subsequent adaptive responses to predation threats should generally increase prey survival. Recent findings suggest that European catfish (Silurus glanis) introduction induce changes in fish community and we tested whether the direction of change can be attributed to differences in chemical cue perception. We tested behavioral response to chemical cues using three species of freshwater fish common in European water: rudd (Scardinius... (More)

The perception of danger represents an essential ability of prey for gaining an informational advantage over their natural enemies. Especially in complex environments or at night, animals strongly rely on chemoreception to avoid predators. The ability to recognize danger by chemical cues and subsequent adaptive responses to predation threats should generally increase prey survival. Recent findings suggest that European catfish (Silurus glanis) introduction induce changes in fish community and we tested whether the direction of change can be attributed to differences in chemical cue perception. We tested behavioral response to chemical cues using three species of freshwater fish common in European water: rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus), roach (Rutilus rutilus), and perch (Perca fluviatilis). Further, we conducted a prey selectivity experiment to evaluate the prey preferences of the European catfish. Roach exhibited the strongest reaction to chemical cues, rudd decreased use of refuge and perch did not alter any behavior in the experiment. These findings suggest that chemical cue perception might be behind community data change and we encourage collecting more community data of tested prey species before and after European catfish introduction to test the hypothesis. We conclude that used prey species can be used as a model species to verify whether chemical cue perception enhances prey survival.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Chemical communication, Predator-prey interaction, Schreckstoff, Wels
in
Ecology and Evolution
volume
8
issue
9
pages
4544 - 4551
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:85045103775
  • pmid:29760895
ISSN
2045-7758
DOI
10.1002/ece3.4000
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d1dfb722-3f4a-4b0f-ac52-c5f498d821e0
date added to LUP
2018-04-23 11:57:43
date last changed
2024-01-14 19:06:04
@article{d1dfb722-3f4a-4b0f-ac52-c5f498d821e0,
  abstract     = {{<p>The perception of danger represents an essential ability of prey for gaining an informational advantage over their natural enemies. Especially in complex environments or at night, animals strongly rely on chemoreception to avoid predators. The ability to recognize danger by chemical cues and subsequent adaptive responses to predation threats should generally increase prey survival. Recent findings suggest that European catfish (Silurus glanis) introduction induce changes in fish community and we tested whether the direction of change can be attributed to differences in chemical cue perception. We tested behavioral response to chemical cues using three species of freshwater fish common in European water: rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus), roach (Rutilus rutilus), and perch (Perca fluviatilis). Further, we conducted a prey selectivity experiment to evaluate the prey preferences of the European catfish. Roach exhibited the strongest reaction to chemical cues, rudd decreased use of refuge and perch did not alter any behavior in the experiment. These findings suggest that chemical cue perception might be behind community data change and we encourage collecting more community data of tested prey species before and after European catfish introduction to test the hypothesis. We conclude that used prey species can be used as a model species to verify whether chemical cue perception enhances prey survival.</p>}},
  author       = {{Šmejkal, Marek and Ricard, Daniel and Sajdlová, Zuzana and Čech, Martin and Vejřík, Lukáš and Blabolil, Petr and Vejříková, Ivana and Prchalová, Marie and Vašek, Mojmír and Souza, Allan T. and Brönmark, Christer and Peterka, Jiří}},
  issn         = {{2045-7758}},
  keywords     = {{Chemical communication; Predator-prey interaction; Schreckstoff; Wels}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{9}},
  pages        = {{4544--4551}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Ecology and Evolution}},
  title        = {{Can species-specific prey responses to chemical cues explain prey susceptibility to predation?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4000}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/ece3.4000}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}