scholarly journals Extended exposure to elevated temperature affects escape response behaviour in coral reef fishes

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald T. Warren ◽  
Jennifer M. Donelson ◽  
Mark I. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Elevated Temperature ◽  
Escape Response ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Thermal Exposure ◽  
Reef Fishes ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Physical Ability ◽  
Pomacentrus Amboinensis ◽  
Extended Exposure

The threat of predation, and the prey’s response, are important drivers of community dynamics. Yet environmental temperature can have a significant effect on predation avoidance techniques such as fast-start performance observed in marine fishes. While it is known that temperature increases can influence performance and behaviour in the short-term, little is known about how species respond to extended exposure during development. We produced a startle response in two species of damselfish, the lemon damselPomacentrus moluccensis,and the Ambon damselfishPomacentrus amboinensis,by the repeated use of a drop stimulus. We show that the length of thermal exposure of juveniles to elevated temperature significantly affects this escape responses.Short-term (4d) exposure to warmer temperature affected directionality and responsiveness for both species. After long-term (90d) exposure, onlyP. moluccensisshowed beneficial plasticity, with directionality returning to control levels. Responsiveness also decreased in both species, possibly to compensate for higher temperatures. There was no effect of temperature or length of exposure on latency to react, maximum swimming speed, or escape distance suggesting that the physical ability to escape was maintained. Evidence suggests that elevated temperature may impact some fish species through its effect on the behavioural responses while under threat rather than having a direct influence on their physical ability to perform an effective escape response.

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

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7320
Author(s):  
Donald T. Warren ◽  
Mark I. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Coral Reef ◽  
Aggressive Behaviour ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Reef Fishes ◽  
Thermal Fluctuations ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Competitive Interactions ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Change Models

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.

scholarly journals The Effects of Biotic and Abiotic Factors on the Community Dynamics in a Mountain Subtropical Forest

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 427
Author(s):  
Tianyang Zhou ◽  
Jiaxin Zhang ◽  
Yunzhi Qin ◽  
Mingxi Jiang ◽  
Xiujuan Qiao
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Forest Dynamics ◽  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Subtropical Forest ◽  
Above Ground Biomass ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Forest Ecosystem Services ◽  
Number Of Individuals

From supporting wood production to mitigating climate change, forest ecosystem services are crucial to the well-being of humans. Understanding the mechanisms that drive forest dynamics can help us infer how to maintain forest ecosystem services and how to improve predictions of forest dynamics under climate change. Despite the growing number of studies exploring above ground biomass (AGB) dynamics, questions of dynamics in biodiversity and in number of individuals still remain unclear. Here, we first explored the patterns of community dynamics in different aspects (i.e., AGB, density and biodiversity) based on short-term (five years) data from a 25-ha permanent plot in a subtropical forest in central China. Second, we examined the relationships between community dynamics and biodiversity and functional traits. Third, we identified the key factors affecting different aspects of community dynamics and quantified their relative contributions. We found that in the short term (five years), net above ground biomass change (ΔAGB) and biodiversity increased, while the number of individuals decreased. Resource-conservation traits enhanced the ΔAGB and reduced the loss in individuals, while the resource-acquisition traits had the opposite effect. Furthermore, the community structure contributed the most to ΔAGB; topographic variables and soil nutrients contributed the most to the number of individuals; demographic process contributed the most to biodiversity. Our results indicate that biotic factors mostly affected the community dynamics of ΔAGB and biodiversity, while the number of individuals was mainly shaped by abiotic factors. Our work highlighted that the factors influencing different aspects of community dynamics vary. Therefore, forest management practices should be formulated according to a specific protective purpose.

Effect of temperature and pH on the community dynamics of coagulase-negative staphylococci during spontaneous meat fermentation in a model system

2018 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 180-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Despoina Angeliki Stavropoulou ◽  
Panagiota Filippou ◽  
Stefaan De Smet ◽  
Luc De Vuyst ◽  
Frédéric Leroy
Keyword(s):  
Community Dynamics ◽  
Model System ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Coagulase Negative Staphylococci ◽  
Meat Fermentation

scholarly journals Animal size and seawater temperature, but not pH, influence a repeatable startle response behaviour in a wide-ranging marine mollusc

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Clements ◽  
Kirti Ramesh ◽  
Jacob Nysveen ◽  
Sam Dupont ◽  
Fredrik Jutfelt
Keyword(s):  
Startle Response ◽  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Seawater Temperature ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Blue Mussels ◽  
Marine Mollusc ◽  
Closure Duration ◽  
Ecosystem Level ◽  
Animal Size

Startle response behaviours are important in predator avoidance and escape for a wide array of animals. For many marine invertebrates, however, startle response behaviours are understudied, and the effects of global change stressors on these responses are unknown. We exposed two size classes of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis × trossulus) to different combinations of temperature (15 and 19 °C) and pH (8.2 and 7.5 pHT) for three months and subsequently measured individual time to open following a tactile predator cue (i.e., startle response time) over a series of four consecutive trials. Time to open was highly repeatable on the short-term and decreased linearly across the four trials. Individuals from the larger size class had a shorter time to open than their smaller-sized counterparts. High temperature increased time to open compared to low temperature, while pH had no effect. These results suggest that bivalve time to open is repeatable, related to relative vulnerability to predation, and affected by temperature. Given that increased closure times impact feeding and respiration, the effect of temperature on closure duration may play a role in the sensitivity to ocean warming in this species and contribute to ecosystem-level effects.

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