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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.

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.

Ecological Disturbance

Ecological Disturbance

An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.

Keystone Species

Keystone Species

Measures of species biodiversity, such as richness (i.e., the number of species present) and evenness (i.e., their relative abundance), describe an ecological community’s structure. Many factors affect community structure, including abiotic factors (e.g., sunlight and nutrients), disturbances (e.g., fire or flood), species interactions (e.g., predation or competition), and chance events (e.g., foreign species invasion). Certain species—such as keystone species—also play a...

Ecological Succession

Ecological Succession

Ecological succession is influenced by the processes of facilitation, inhibition, and toleration. Facilitation occurs when early successional species create more favorable ecological conditions for subsequent species, such as enhanced nutrient, water, or light availability. In contrast, inhibition happens when early successional species create unfavorable ecological conditions for potential successive species, such as limiting resource availability. In some cases, later successional species...

Symbiosis

Symbiosis

Symbiotic relationships are long-term, close interactions between individuals of different species that affect the distribution and abundance of those species. When a relationship is beneficial to both species, this is called mutualism. When the relationship is beneficial to one species but neither beneficial nor harmful to the other species, this is called commensalism. When one organism is harmed to benefit another, the relationship is known as parasitism. These types of relationships often...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 3, 2025

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter

Published on: March 12, 2013

Predation and spatial connectivity interact to shape ecosystem resilience to an ongoing regime shift.

Agnes B Olin^1,2, Ulf Bergström³, Örjan Bodin⁴

¹Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. agnes.olin@slu.se.

Nature Communications

|February 12, 2024

Summary

Ecosystem resilience to regime shifts improves with habitat connectivity for predatory fish, especially when top predator (seal, cormorant) densities are low and temperatures are high.

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Last Updated: Jul 3, 2025

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Measuring the Structure, Composition, and Change of Underwater Environments with Large-area Imaging

Measuring the Structure, Composition, and Change of Underwater Environments with Large-area Imaging

Published on: April 18, 2025

Area of Science:

Marine ecology
Ecosystem resilience
Fisheries science

Background:

Ecosystem regime shifts pose significant ecological and economic risks.
Understanding factors that enhance ecosystem resilience is a priority.
Theory suggests spatial connectivity and local environment influence resilience, but empirical evidence is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

To empirically test how spatial connectivity and local environmental factors influence ecosystem resilience.
To investigate resilience to an ongoing regime shift in the Baltic Sea, characterized by a change in fish dominance.
To assess the interacting effects of habitat connectivity, top predator densities, and temperature on this regime shift.

Main Methods:

Utilized over 7000 fish sampling events from the Baltic Sea coast.
Analyzed an ongoing, spatially propagating regime shift from predatory fish to mesopredators.
Employed statistical methods to control for other drivers, including mesopredator and top predator densities, and temperature.

Main Results:

Predatory fish habitat connectivity was found to increase resilience to the regime shift.
This effect was conditional on low densities of top predators (seals, cormorants).
Increased temperature positively correlated with resilience, likely via enhanced predatory fish growth and recruitment.

Conclusions:

Spatial connectivity and local environmental conditions (temperature, top predator abundance) interact to shape ecosystem resilience.
Findings support theoretical predictions regarding the drivers of resilience in the face of ecological change.
The study provides empirical evidence for managing marine ecosystems to enhance resilience to regime shifts.