Learned predators enhance biological control via organizational upward and trophic top-down cascades.

ABSTRACT: Learning is a behavioural change based on memory of previous experiences and a ubiquitous phenomenon in animals. Learning effects are commonly life-stage- and age-specific. In many animals, early life experiences lead to pervasive and persistent behavioural changes.There is broad consensus that learning has far-reaching implications to biological control. Proximate and ultimate factors of individual learning by parasitoids and true predators are relatively well understood, yet the consequences of learning to higher organizational levels, populations and communities, and top-down trophic cascades are unexplored.We addressed this issue using a tri-trophic system consisting of predatory mites Amblyseius swirskii, Western flower thrips Frankliniella occidentalis and whole common

SUBMITTER: Schausberger P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7839590 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature