Duration of Exposure to Elevated Temperature Affects Competitive Interactions in Juvenile Reef Fishes

Climate change will affect key ecological processes that structure natural communities, but the outcome of interactions between individuals and species will depend on their thermal plasticity. We tested how short- and long-term exposure to projected future temperatures affects intraspecific and interspecific competitive interactions in two species of coral reef damselfishes. In conspecific contests, juvenile Ambon damselfish, Pomacentrus amboinensis, exhibited no change in aggressive interactions after 4d exposure to higher temperatures. However, after 90d of exposure, fish showed a nonadaptive reduction in aggression at elevated temperatures. Conversely, 4d exposure to higher temperature increased aggression towards conspecifics in the lemon damselfish, Pomacentrus moluccensis. 90d exposure began to reduce this pattern, but overall there was little effect of temperature. Aggression in interspecific contests increased with short-term exposure, but was significantly lower after long-term exposure indicative of acclimation. Our results show how the length of exposure to elevated temperature can affect the outcome of competitive interactions. Furthermore, we illustrate that results from intraspecific contests may not accurately predict interspecific interactions, which will challenge our ability to generalise the effects of warming on competitive interactions.