Differences in prey personality mediate trophic cascades.

ABSTRACT: Functional trait approaches in ecology chiefly assume the mean trait value of a population adequately predicts the outcome of species interactions. Yet this assumption ignores substantial trait variation among individuals within a population, which can have a profound effect on community structure and function. We explored individual trait variation through the lens of animal personality to test whether among-individual variation in prey behavior mediates trophic interactions. We quantified the structure of personalities within a population of generalist grasshoppers and examined, through a number of field and laboratory-based experiments, how personality types could impact tri-trophic interactions in a food chain. Unlike other studies of this nature, we used spatial habitat domains to eva

SUBMITTER: Sommer NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7487229 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature