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Predator-Prey Interactions

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.

Competition

Competition

When organisms require the same limited resources within an environment, they may have to compete for them. Competition is a net-negative interaction. Even if two competing individuals or populations do not interact directly, the overall fitness of both competitors is lowered as a result of not having full access to the limited resource.

Habitat Fragmentation

Habitat Fragmentation

Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.

Apparent Weight

Apparent Weight

True weight is the measure of the gravitational force acting on an object. However, if the object accelerates, its measured weight is different from its true weight. Similar observations can be made when the object is submerged in water. An object's weight in water is its apparent weight, which is equal to the difference between its true weight and the buoyant forces.
Consider a person standing on a bathroom scale inside an elevator. If the scale is accurate at rest, its reading equals the...

Law of Segregation

Law of Segregation

When crossing pea plants, Mendel noticed that one of the parental traits would sometimes disappear in the first generation of offspring, called the F1 generation, and could reappear in the next generation (F2). He concluded that one of the traits must be dominant over the other, thereby causing masking of one trait in the F1 generation. When he crossed the F1 plants, he found that 75% of the offspring in the F2 generation had the dominant phenotype, while 25% had the recessive phenotype.

Apparent Weight and the Earth's Rotation

Apparent Weight and the Earth's Rotation

Since all objects on the Earth's surface move through a circle every 24 hours, there must be a net centripetal force on each object, directed towards the center of that circle. The points of the north and south poles are the only exception to this rule.
For an object on the Earth's equator, the net centripetal force that accounts for its rotation is the Earth's pull towards its center, or the weight minus the normal force that prevents it from piercing into the Earth's surface....

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Indirect Interactions Between Prey: Apparent Competition, Predator Aggregation, and Habitat Segregation.

Russell J Schmitt

|January 23, 2018

Summary

Apparent competition occurs when two prey species negatively impact each other by attracting shared predators. This study experimentally demonstrates this interaction between gastropods and bivalves on rocky reefs, influencing their habitat distribution.

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Area of Science:

Marine Ecology
Community Ecology
Predator-Prey Dynamics

Background:

Mobile gastropods and sessile bivalves coexist on subtidal rocky reefs.
Both prey groups share common invertebrate predators.
Prey distribution patterns suggest habitat segregation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate indirect interactions between gastropods and bivalves.
To experimentally test the concept of apparent competition in a natural marine system.
To understand how these interactions influence prey habitat use.

Main Methods:

Field experiments on subtidal rocky reefs at Santa Catalina Island, California.
Manipulated densities of sessile bivalves in cobble reef plots.
Monitored predator densities, prey mortality, and population densities.

Main Results:

Adding bivalves increased predator density in cobble areas, leading to higher gastropod mortality.
Higher gastropod densities in cobble areas correlated with increased predator presence and higher bivalve mortality.
Both prey groups experienced negative impacts due to the presence of the other, mediated by shared predators.

Conclusions:

This study provides the first experimental evidence of apparent competition between marine prey species.
Apparent competition, driven by shared predators, negatively affects both gastropod and bivalve populations.
Shared predation and apparent competition may maintain the observed habitat segregation between these prey groups.