Consequences of Adaptive Individual Behavior, Higher Order Interactions, and Food Web Structure in a Larval Anuran Community

食物网结构调节 动物种群目前正在接受许多理论和 经验的关注.. 该建议旨在制定一项 机械理解的相互作用的强度在一个 食物网由鱼类、无脊椎动物和两种 无尾类幼虫 通过这一食物网介导的间接影响 是两个无尾两栖类相对成功的关键 沿着环境梯度从永久到暂时 池塘。 食物网的相互作用是在几个 从个体行为到大规模食物网 从机制到理解， 社区现象。 该提案的一个重点是实验性的 高阶相互作用重要性的评价 由猎物对存在的 他们的掠食者 这些高阶相互作用改变了 猎物之间的竞争性相互作用的性质， 捕食者对猎物的任何直接死亡率影响。 因为 被捕食者的行为反应普遍存在， 捕食者，这种高阶相互作用可能很重要， 许多生态系统。 无尾两栖类的行为反应 反过来又由增长（竞争能力）-风险介导 权衡，一个通过活动水平，另一个通过 栖息地选择 个人行为层面的理论 开发、测试和使用，为以下方面提供理论基础： 理解适应性个体的社会后果 行为 这两种权衡都与互动有关 在许多taxa。 最后，由于行为反应通常 个体大小的功能，这项工作将探索个体发育 对行为表达的限制以及 物种互动

The manner in which food web structure regulates the size of animal populations is currently receiving much theoretical and empirical attention.. This proposal seeks to develop a mechanistic understanding of the strength of interactions in a food web consisting of fish, invertebrate predators, and two anuran larvae. Indirect effects mediated through this food web are central to changes in relative success of the two anurans along the environmental gradient from permanent to temporary ponds. The food web interactions are approached at several levels ranging from individual behavior to large scale food web manipulations to build from mechanisms to an understanding of community phenomena. A focus of the proposal is an experimental evaluation of the importance of higher order interactions generated by behavioral responses of prey to the presence of their predators. These higher order interactions alter the nature of competitive interactions among prey in the absence of any direct mortality effects of predators on prey. Because of the widespread occurrence of behavioral responses of prey to predators, such higher order interactions are likely important in many ecological systems. The behavioral responses of the anurans in turn are mediated by growth (competitive ability)-risk tradeoffs, one through activity levels and the other through habitat choice. Theory at the individual behavioral level will be developed, tested and used to provide a theoretical basis for understanding the community consequences of adaptive individual behavior. Both of these tradeoffs are relevant to interactions in many taxa. Finally, because behavioral responses are often functions of individual size, the work will explore ontogenetic constraints on behavioral expression and the consequences to species interactions.