Resource competition explains rare cannibalism in the wild in livebearing fishes
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2022 |
Outros Autores: | , , , , , , , , , |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Institucional da UNESP |
Texto Completo: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8872 http://hdl.handle.net/11449/240143 |
Resumo: | Cannibalism, the act of preying on and consuming a conspecific, is taxonomically widespread, and putatively important in the wild, particularly in teleost fishes. Nonetheless, most studies of cannibalism in fishes have been performed in the laboratory. Here, we test four predictions for the evolution of cannibalism by conducting one of the largest assessments of cannibalism in the wild to date coupled with a mesocosm experiment. Focusing on mosquitofishes and guppies, we examined 17 species (11,946 individuals) across 189 populations in the wild, spanning both native and invasive ranges and including disparate types of habitats. We found cannibalism to be quite rare in the wild: most populations and species showed no evidence of cannibalism, and the prevalence of cannibalism was typically less than 5% within populations when it occurred. Most victims were juveniles (94%; only half of these appeared to have been newborn offspring), with the remaining 6% of victims being adult males. Females exhibited more cannibalism than males, but this was only partially explained by their larger body size, suggesting greater energetic requirements of reproduction likely play a role as well. We found no evidence that dispersal-limited environments had a lower prevalence of cannibalism, but prevalence was greater in populations with higher conspecific densities, suggesting that more intense resource competition drives cannibalistic behavior. Supporting this conclusion, our mesocosm experiment revealed that cannibalism prevalence increased with higher conspecific density and lower resource levels but was not associated with juvenile density or strongly influenced by predation risk. We suggest that cannibalism in livebearing fishes is rare in the wild because preying on conspecifics is energetically costly and only becomes worth the effort when competition for other food is intense. Due to the artificially reduced cost of capturing conspecifics within confined spaces, cannibalism in captive settings can be much more frequent. |
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Resource competition explains rare cannibalism in the wild in livebearing fishesGambusiaintraspecific competitionoptimal foraging theoryPoecilia reticulatapopulation densitysize differenceCannibalism, the act of preying on and consuming a conspecific, is taxonomically widespread, and putatively important in the wild, particularly in teleost fishes. Nonetheless, most studies of cannibalism in fishes have been performed in the laboratory. Here, we test four predictions for the evolution of cannibalism by conducting one of the largest assessments of cannibalism in the wild to date coupled with a mesocosm experiment. Focusing on mosquitofishes and guppies, we examined 17 species (11,946 individuals) across 189 populations in the wild, spanning both native and invasive ranges and including disparate types of habitats. We found cannibalism to be quite rare in the wild: most populations and species showed no evidence of cannibalism, and the prevalence of cannibalism was typically less than 5% within populations when it occurred. Most victims were juveniles (94%; only half of these appeared to have been newborn offspring), with the remaining 6% of victims being adult males. Females exhibited more cannibalism than males, but this was only partially explained by their larger body size, suggesting greater energetic requirements of reproduction likely play a role as well. We found no evidence that dispersal-limited environments had a lower prevalence of cannibalism, but prevalence was greater in populations with higher conspecific densities, suggesting that more intense resource competition drives cannibalistic behavior. Supporting this conclusion, our mesocosm experiment revealed that cannibalism prevalence increased with higher conspecific density and lower resource levels but was not associated with juvenile density or strongly influenced by predation risk. We suggest that cannibalism in livebearing fishes is rare in the wild because preying on conspecifics is energetically costly and only becomes worth the effort when competition for other food is intense. Due to the artificially reduced cost of capturing conspecifics within confined spaces, cannibalism in captive settings can be much more frequent.National Science FoundationDepartment of Biological Sciences Centre for Ecology Evolution and Behaviour Royal Holloway University of LondonInstituto de Biociências Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)Department of Biological Sciences North Carolina State UniversityDepartment of Anthropology University of FloridaDepartment of Biological Sciences Florida State UniversityDepartment of Biology Case Western Reserve UniversityInstituto de Biociências Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)National Science Foundation: DEB 0722480National Science Foundation: DEB 0842364Royal Holloway University of LondonUniversidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)North Carolina State UniversityUniversity of FloridaFlorida State UniversityCase Western Reserve UniversityRiesch, RüdigerAraújo, Márcio S. [UNESP]Bumgarner, StuartFilla, CaitlynnPennafort, LauraGoins, Taylor R.Lucion, DarleneMakowicz, Amber M.Martin, Ryan A.Pirroni, SaraLangerhans, R. Brian2023-03-01T20:03:24Z2023-03-01T20:03:24Z2022-05-01info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8872Ecology and Evolution, v. 12, n. 5, 2022.2045-7758http://hdl.handle.net/11449/24014310.1002/ece3.88722-s2.0-85130808924Scopusreponame:Repositório Institucional da UNESPinstname:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)instacron:UNESPengEcology and Evolutioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess2023-03-01T20:03:24Zoai:repositorio.unesp.br:11449/240143Repositório InstitucionalPUBhttp://repositorio.unesp.br/oai/requestopendoar:29462024-08-05T23:35:01.833451Repositório Institucional da UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)false |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Resource competition explains rare cannibalism in the wild in livebearing fishes |
title |
Resource competition explains rare cannibalism in the wild in livebearing fishes |
spellingShingle |
Resource competition explains rare cannibalism in the wild in livebearing fishes Riesch, Rüdiger Gambusia intraspecific competition optimal foraging theory Poecilia reticulata population density size difference |
title_short |
Resource competition explains rare cannibalism in the wild in livebearing fishes |
title_full |
Resource competition explains rare cannibalism in the wild in livebearing fishes |
title_fullStr |
Resource competition explains rare cannibalism in the wild in livebearing fishes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Resource competition explains rare cannibalism in the wild in livebearing fishes |
title_sort |
Resource competition explains rare cannibalism in the wild in livebearing fishes |
author |
Riesch, Rüdiger |
author_facet |
Riesch, Rüdiger Araújo, Márcio S. [UNESP] Bumgarner, Stuart Filla, Caitlynn Pennafort, Laura Goins, Taylor R. Lucion, Darlene Makowicz, Amber M. Martin, Ryan A. Pirroni, Sara Langerhans, R. Brian |
author_role |
author |
author2 |
Araújo, Márcio S. [UNESP] Bumgarner, Stuart Filla, Caitlynn Pennafort, Laura Goins, Taylor R. Lucion, Darlene Makowicz, Amber M. Martin, Ryan A. Pirroni, Sara Langerhans, R. Brian |
author2_role |
author author author author author author author author author author |
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv |
Royal Holloway University of London Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) North Carolina State University University of Florida Florida State University Case Western Reserve University |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Riesch, Rüdiger Araújo, Márcio S. [UNESP] Bumgarner, Stuart Filla, Caitlynn Pennafort, Laura Goins, Taylor R. Lucion, Darlene Makowicz, Amber M. Martin, Ryan A. Pirroni, Sara Langerhans, R. Brian |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
Gambusia intraspecific competition optimal foraging theory Poecilia reticulata population density size difference |
topic |
Gambusia intraspecific competition optimal foraging theory Poecilia reticulata population density size difference |
description |
Cannibalism, the act of preying on and consuming a conspecific, is taxonomically widespread, and putatively important in the wild, particularly in teleost fishes. Nonetheless, most studies of cannibalism in fishes have been performed in the laboratory. Here, we test four predictions for the evolution of cannibalism by conducting one of the largest assessments of cannibalism in the wild to date coupled with a mesocosm experiment. Focusing on mosquitofishes and guppies, we examined 17 species (11,946 individuals) across 189 populations in the wild, spanning both native and invasive ranges and including disparate types of habitats. We found cannibalism to be quite rare in the wild: most populations and species showed no evidence of cannibalism, and the prevalence of cannibalism was typically less than 5% within populations when it occurred. Most victims were juveniles (94%; only half of these appeared to have been newborn offspring), with the remaining 6% of victims being adult males. Females exhibited more cannibalism than males, but this was only partially explained by their larger body size, suggesting greater energetic requirements of reproduction likely play a role as well. We found no evidence that dispersal-limited environments had a lower prevalence of cannibalism, but prevalence was greater in populations with higher conspecific densities, suggesting that more intense resource competition drives cannibalistic behavior. Supporting this conclusion, our mesocosm experiment revealed that cannibalism prevalence increased with higher conspecific density and lower resource levels but was not associated with juvenile density or strongly influenced by predation risk. We suggest that cannibalism in livebearing fishes is rare in the wild because preying on conspecifics is energetically costly and only becomes worth the effort when competition for other food is intense. Due to the artificially reduced cost of capturing conspecifics within confined spaces, cannibalism in captive settings can be much more frequent. |
publishDate |
2022 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2022-05-01 2023-03-01T20:03:24Z 2023-03-01T20:03:24Z |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8872 Ecology and Evolution, v. 12, n. 5, 2022. 2045-7758 http://hdl.handle.net/11449/240143 10.1002/ece3.8872 2-s2.0-85130808924 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8872 http://hdl.handle.net/11449/240143 |
identifier_str_mv |
Ecology and Evolution, v. 12, n. 5, 2022. 2045-7758 10.1002/ece3.8872 2-s2.0-85130808924 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
Ecology and Evolution |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
Scopus reponame:Repositório Institucional da UNESP instname:Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) instacron:UNESP |
instname_str |
Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) |
instacron_str |
UNESP |
institution |
UNESP |
reponame_str |
Repositório Institucional da UNESP |
collection |
Repositório Institucional da UNESP |
repository.name.fl_str_mv |
Repositório Institucional da UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) |
repository.mail.fl_str_mv |
|
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1808129532134162432 |