Studies of phenotypic plasticity frequently demonstrate functional trade-offs between alternative phenotypes by documenting environment-specific costs and benefits. However, the functional mechanisms underlying these trade-offs are often unknown. For example, predator-induced traits typically provide superior predator resistance but slower growth, while competitor-induced traits provide better ...

1. Theory suggests that the relationship between predator diversity and prey suppression should depend on variation in predator traits such as body size, which strongly influences the type and strength of species interactions. Prey species often face a range of different sized predators, and the composition of body sizes of predators can vary between communities and within communities across se...

Simple rules based on population equilibria can characterize indirect interactions in threespecies systems but fail to predict them when considering behavioral mechanisms. In this paper, we revisit the effects of shared predation, i.e. the situation in which two prey are consumed by a common predator. Such predation usually induces negative indirect interactions between prey, or apparent compet...

Although cannibalism is ubiquitous in food webs and frequent in systems where a predator and its prey also share a common resource (intraguild predation, IGP), its impacts on species interactions and the dynamics and structure of communities are still poorly understood. In addition, the few existing studies on cannibalism have generally focused on cannibalism in the top-predator, ignoring that ...

Foraging movements of predator play an important role in population dynamics of prey-predator interactions, which have been considered as mechanisms that contribute to spatial self-organization of prey and predator. In nature, there are many examples of prey-predator interactions where prey is immobile while predator disperses between patches non-randomly through different factors such as stimu...

Extreme habitats are often characterized by reduced predation pressures, thus representing refuges for the inhabiting species. The present study was designed to investigate predator avoidance of extremophile populations of Poecilia mexicana and P. sulphuraria that either live in hydrogen sulfide-rich (sulfidic) springs or cave habitats, both of which are known to have impoverished piscine preda...

Ecological theory suggests that prey size should increase with predator size, but this trend may be masked by other factors affecting prey selection, such as environmental constraints or specific prey preferences of predator species. Owls are an ideal case study for exploring how predator body size affects prey selection in the presence of other factors due to the ease of analyzing their diets ...

Predator-prey body size relationships influence food chain length, trophic structure, transfer efficiency, interaction strength, and the bioaccumulation of contaminants. Improved quantification of these relationships and their response to the environment is needed to parameterize food web models and describe food web structure and function. A compiled data set comprising 29582 records of indivi...

There are few regulations for the release of parasitoids and predators, compared to herbivorous arthropods and pathogens, used as classical biological control agents in the United States The types of tests conducted prior to release of the predator or parasitoid into the environment are often up to the individual wishing to introduce the new agent. Ethical researchers understand the importance ...