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Bird Predators (bird + predator)
Selected AbstractsEcosystem controls of juvenile pink salmon (Onchorynchus gorbuscha) and Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) populations in Prince William Sound, AlaskaFISHERIES OCEANOGRAPHY, Issue 2001Robert T. Cooney Abstract Five years of field, laboratory, and numerical modelling studies demonstrated ecosystem-level mechanisms influencing the mortality of juvenile pink salmon and Pacific herring. Both species are prey for other fishes, seabirds, and marine mammals in Prince William Sound. We identified critical time-space linkages between the juvenile stages of pink salmon and herring rearing in shallow-water nursery areas and seasonally varying ocean state, the availability of appropriate zooplankton forage, and the kinds and numbers of predators. These relationships defined unique habitat dependencies for juveniles whose survivals were strongly linked to growth rates, energy reserves, and seasonal trophic sheltering from predators. We found that juvenile herring were subject to substantial starvation losses during a winter period of plankton diminishment, and that predation on juvenile pink salmon was closely linked to the availability of alternative prey for fish and bird predators. Our collaborative study further revealed that juvenile pink salmon and age-0 herring exploit very different portions of the annual production cycle. Juvenile pink salmon targeted the cool-water, early spring plankton bloom dominated by diatoms and large calanoid copepods, whereas young-of-the-year juvenile herring were dependent on warmer conditions occurring later in the postbloom summer and fall when zooplankton was composed of smaller calanoids and a diversity of other taxa. The synopsis of our studies presented in this volume speaks to contemporary issues facing investigators of fish ecosystems, including juvenile fishes, and offers new insight into problems of bottom-up and top-down control. In aggregate, our results point to the importance of seeking mechanistic rather than correlative understandings of complex natural systems. [source] Ecological processes influencing mortality of juvenile pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) in Prince William Sound, AlaskaFISHERIES OCEANOGRAPHY, Issue 2001T. M. Willette Abstract Our collaborative work focused on understanding the system of mechanisms influencing the mortality of juvenile pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Coordinated field studies, data analysis and numerical modelling projects were used to identify and explain the mechanisms and their roles in juvenile mortality. In particular, project studies addressed the identification of major fish and bird predators consuming juvenile salmon and the evaluation of three hypotheses linking these losses to (i) alternative prey for predators (prey-switching hypothesis); (ii) salmon foraging behaviour (refuge-dispersion hypothesis); and (iii) salmon size and growth (size-refuge hypothesis). Two facultative planktivorous fishes, Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) and walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma), probably consumed the most juvenile pink salmon each year, although other gadids were also important. Our prey-switching hypothesis was supported by data indicating that herring and pollock switched to alternative nekton prey, including juvenile salmon, when the biomass of large copepods declined below about 0.2 g m,3. Model simulations were consistent with these findings, but simulations suggested that a June pteropod bloom also sheltered juvenile salmon from predation. Our refuge-dispersion hypothesis was supported by data indicating a five-fold increase in predation losses of juvenile salmon when salmon dispersed from nearshore habitats as the biomass of large copepods declined. Our size-refuge hypothesis was supported by data indicating that size- and growth-dependent vulnerabilities of salmon to predators were a function of predator and prey sizes and the timing of predation events. Our model simulations offered support for the efficacy of representing ecological processes affecting juvenile fishes as systems of coupled evolution equations representing both spatial distribution and physiological status. Simulations wherein model dimensionality was limited through construction of composite trophic groups reproduced the dominant patterns in salmon survival data. In our study, these composite trophic groups were six key zooplankton taxonomic groups, two categories of adult pelagic fishes, and from six to 12 groups for tagged hatchery-reared juvenile salmon. Model simulations also suggested the importance of salmon density and predator size as important factors modifying the predation process. [source] Size-dependent predation risk in tree-feeding insects with different colouration strategies: a field experimentJOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2009Triinu Remmel Summary 1. Body size is positively correlated with fecundity in various animals, but the factors that counterbalance the resulting selection pressure towards large size are difficult to establish. Positively size-dependent predation risk has been proposed as a selective factor potentially capable of balancing the fecundity advantage of large size. 2. To construct optimality models of insect body size, realistic estimates of size-dependent predation rates are necessary. Moreover, prey traits such as colouration should be considered, as they may substantially alter the relationship between body size and mortality risk. 3. To quantify mortality patterns, we conducted field experiments in which we exposed cryptic and conspicuous artificial larvae of different sizes to bird predators, and recorded the incidence of bird attacks. 4. The average daily mortality rate was estimated to vary between 4% and 10%. In both cryptic and conspicuous larvae, predation risk increased with prey size, but the increase tended to be steeper in the conspicuous group. No main effect of colour type was found. All the quantitative relationships were reasonably consistent across replicates. 5. Our results suggest that the size dependence of mortality risk in insect prey is primarily determined by the probability of being detected by a predator rather than by a size-dependent warning effect associated with conspicuous colouration. Our results therefore imply that warningly coloured insects do not necessarily benefit more than the cryptic species from large body size, as has been previously suggested. [source] What constitutes optical warning signals of ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) towards bird predators: colour, pattern or general look?BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, Issue 1 2009MICHAELA DOLENSKÁ Most ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) possess chemical protection against predators and signal its presence by less or more conspicuous coloration, which can be considered as a warning. Most ladybirds possess a dotted pattern, althougn the number, shape, and size of the spots, as well as their colour, varies considerably. Almost all ladybirds have a characteristic general appearance (body shape). We considered these traits to be used in ladybird recognition by avian predators. In the present study, we compared the reactions of avian predators (Parus major) caught in the wild, to four differently coloured ladybird beetles (Coccinella septempunctata, Exochomus quadripustulatus, Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata, and Cynegetis impunctata) and two artificial modifications of C. septempunctata; the first was deprived of their elytral spotted pattern by painting it brown, the other had their elytra removed (i.e. altering their general ladybird appearance). Ladybirds with a spotted pattern were attacked less frequently than unspotted ones. Ladybirds with removed elytra were attacked much more often than any ladybird with a preserved general appearance. The results obtained in the present study suggest the high importance of the spotted pattern as well as general appearance in the ladybird recognition process. Additional experiments with naïve birds (hand-reared P. major) demonstrated the innateness of the aversion to two differently spotted ladybird species (C. septempunctata and Scymnus frontalis). © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 98, 234,242. [source] | ||||||||||