Does visual or mechanosensory disruption influence risk assessment in coral reef fishes: a preliminary study.

ABSTRACT: Interpreting and responding to environmental cues from different modalities has survival value. In fish, the role of multimodal perception has been studied in regard to both foraging and risk assessment, with modalities including vision, olfaction, and mechanoreception via lateral lines. We studied reef fish boldness by placing novel objects that obstructed vision, lateral line use, or both into a coral reef environment with native algal samples inside, and then quantifying exploration as a function of obstruction type and as a function of functional diet groups (herbivores, omnivores, carnivores). Fish were more neophobic with more sensory obstructions, displaying longer latencies to visitation across all novel objects. Fish were also less likely to pass by objects that blocked multiple p

SUBMITTER: Bowers R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11650934 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature