Rapid resource depletion on coral reefs disrupts competitor recognition processes among butterflyfish species.

ABSTRACT: Avoiding costly fights can help conserve energy needed to survive rapid environmental change. Competitor recognition processes help resolve contests without escalating to attack, yet we have limited understanding of how they are affected by resource depletion and potential effects on species coexistence. Using a mass coral mortality event as a natural experiment and 3770 field observations of butterflyfish encounters, we test how rapid resource depletion could disrupt recognition processes in butterflyfishes. Following resource loss, heterospecifics approached each other more closely before initiating aggression, fewer contests were resolved by signalling, and the energy invested in attacks was greater. By contrast, behaviour towards conspecifics did not change. As predicted by theory, con

SUBMITTER: Keith SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9811634 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature