Temperature and turbidity interact synergistically to alter anti-predator behaviour in the Trinidadian guppy.

ABSTRACT: Due to climate change, freshwater habitats are facing increasing temperatures and more extreme weather that disrupts water flow. Together with eutrophication and sedimentation from farming, quarrying and urbanization, freshwaters are becoming more turbid as well as warmer. Predators and prey need to be able to respond to one another adaptively, yet how changes in temperature and turbidity interact to affect predator-prey behaviour remains unexplored. Using a fully factorial design, we tested the combined effects of increased temperature and turbidity on the behaviour of guppy shoals (Poecilia reticulata) in the presence of one of their natural cichlid predators, the blue acara (Andinoacara pulcher). Our results demonstrate that the prey and predator were in closest proximity

SUBMITTER: Zanghi C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10320334 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature