Seascapes and foraging success: Movement and resource discovery by a benthic marine herbivore.

ABSTRACT: Spatially concentrated resources result in patch-based foraging, wherein the detection and choice of patches as well as the process of locating and exploiting resource patches involve moving through an explicit landscape composed of both resources and barriers to movement. An understanding of behavioral responses to resources and barriers is key to interpreting observed ecological patterns. We examined the process of resource discovery in the context of a heterogeneous seascape using sea urchins and drift kelp in urchin barrens as a model system. Under field conditions, we manipulated both the presence of a highly valuable resource (drift kelp) and a barrier to movement (sandy substratum) to test the interacting influence of these two factors on the process of resource discovery in barren

SUBMITTER: MacGregor KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9465196 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature