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Trophic cascade driven by behavioural fine-tuning as naïve prey rapidly adjust to a novel predator

View ORCID ProfileChris J. Jolly, View ORCID ProfileAdam S. Smart, John Moreen, Jonathan K. Webb, View ORCID ProfileGraeme R. Gillespie, View ORCID ProfileBen L. Phillips
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/856997
Chris J. Jolly
1School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville Vic 3010 Australia
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  • For correspondence: cjolly1@student.unimelb.edu.au
Adam S. Smart
1School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville Vic 3010 Australia
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John Moreen
2Kenbi Rangers, Mandorah NT 0822 Australia
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Jonathan K. Webb
3School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway NSW 2007 Australia
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Graeme R. Gillespie
1School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville Vic 3010 Australia
4Flora and Fauna Division, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Northern Territory Government, Berrimah NT 0828 Australia
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Ben L. Phillips
1School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville Vic 3010 Australia
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Abstract

The arrival of novel predators can trigger trophic cascades driven by shifts in prey numbers. Predators also elicit behavioural change in prey populations, via phenotypic plasticity and/or rapid evolution, and such changes may also contribute to trophic cascades. Here we document rapid demographic and behavioural changes in populations of a prey species (grassland melomys Melomys burtoni, a granivorous rodent) following the introduction of a novel marsupial predator (northern quoll Dasyurus hallucatus). Within months of quolls appearing, populations of melomys exhibited reduced survival and population declines relative to control populations. Quoll-invaded populations (n = 4) were also significantly shyer than nearby, quoll-free populations (n = 3) of conspecifics. This rapid but generalised response to a novel threat was replaced over the following two years with more threat-specific antipredator behaviours (i.e. predator-scent aversion). Predator-exposed populations, however, remained more neophobic than predator-free populations throughout the study. These behavioural responses manifested rapidly in avoidance of seeds associated with quoll scent, with discrimination playing out over a spatial scale of tens of metres. Presumably the significant and novel predation pressure induced by quolls drove melomys populations to fine-tune behavioural responses to be more predator-specific through time. These behavioural shifts could reflect individual plasticity (phenotypic flexibility) in behaviour or may be adaptive shifts from natural selection imposed by quoll predation. Our study provides a rare insight into the rapid ecological and behavioural shifts enacted by prey to mitigate the impacts of a novel predator and shows that trophic cascades can be strongly influenced by behavioural changed rates of seed predation by melomys across treatments. Quoll-invaded melomys populations exhibited lower per-capita seed take rates, and rapidly developed an as well as numerical responses.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Version 6 of this preprint has been peer-reviewed and recommended by Peer Community In Ecology (https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.ecology.100057)

  • http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3936466

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted November 22, 2020.
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Trophic cascade driven by behavioural fine-tuning as naïve prey rapidly adjust to a novel predator
Chris J. Jolly, Adam S. Smart, John Moreen, Jonathan K. Webb, Graeme R. Gillespie, Ben L. Phillips
bioRxiv 856997; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/856997
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Trophic cascade driven by behavioural fine-tuning as naïve prey rapidly adjust to a novel predator
Chris J. Jolly, Adam S. Smart, John Moreen, Jonathan K. Webb, Graeme R. Gillespie, Ben L. Phillips
bioRxiv 856997; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/856997

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