Using behavioural and sensory ecology as an innovative approach to study the effects of environmental change on predator-prey interactions in aquatic ecosystems

地球上的大多数生物生活在人类活动在一定程度上改变了的环境中。我的研究项目的目标是了解这种变化的方式，包括生物变化(引入入侵物种)和非生物变化(浊度、二氧化碳、温度)对水生生态系统中捕食者-猎物相互作用的影响。我使用一种创新的方法，结合行为和感觉生态学，调查生物是否以及为什么没有对改变的栖息地的环境线索做出正确的反应，以及这些生物效应如何通过食物网的改变反过来影响生态系统功能。通过将我们的努力集中在有机体对环境变化的感知上，我们可以发现解释不适应反应起源的潜在机制。这将帮助我们建立更准确的环境/气候变化对生态系统影响的模型，并找到缓解特定问题的方法。在这里，我建议研究(1)水生猎物如何整合来自不同感官输入(视觉和化学)的捕食线索，以及移除其中一个感官输入将如何影响猎物正确识别捕食者的能力。我还将比较这种感官限制对来自物种丰富(珊瑚礁)和物种贫乏(温带分水岭)系统的猎物的后果；(2)由于这些新的环境条件增加了觅食限制，与全球变暖有关的温度上升是否以及如何改变猎物使用的反捕食者策略；(3)全球变暖是否会与海洋酸化相互作用，加剧珊瑚礁鱼类反捕食者行为的损害。捕食是影响猎物及其种群和群落的行为、生活史、分布的基本过程。了解环境变化将如何影响这一关键的监管进程，对于预测环境变化将对我们的生物多样性(增加养护努力)和经济(改善渔业管理以确保可持续性)产生的影响至关重要。

The majority of organisms on Earth live in environments that have been altered to some degree by human activities. The goal of my research program is to understand the way such alterations, both biotic (introduction of invasive species) and abiotic (turbidity, CO2, temperature) affect predator-prey interactions in aquatic ecosystems. I use an innovative approach, combining behavioural and sensory ecology, to investigate if and why it is that organisms are not responding properly to environmental cues in altered habitats, and how these organismal effects in turn affect ecosystem functions through alterations in food webs. By focusing our efforts on the organism's perception of environmental change, we can uncover potential mechanisms explaining the origin of maladaptive responses. This will help us build more accurate models of the effects of environmental/climate change on ecosystems, and find mitigations to specific problems. Here, I propose to look at (1) how aquatic prey integrate predation cues from different sensory inputs (visual and chemical) and how the removal of one of these inputs will affect the ability of prey to properly recognize predators. I will also compare the consequences of such sensory limitation on prey from species-rich (coral reefs) and species-poor (temperate watersheds) systems; (2) if and how the increased temperature relating to global warming will change the antipredator strategies used by prey, due to the increased foraging constraints imposed by these novel environmental conditions; and (3) if global warming will interact with ocean acidification to accentuate the impairment of fish antipredator behaviour in coral reefs. Predation is a fundamental process influencing behaviour, life history, distribution of prey, together with their populations and communities. Understanding how environmental change will impact this crucial regulatory process is of prime importance to predict the repercussions that environmental change will have on our biodiversity (increased conservation efforts) and economy (improved fisheries management to ensure sustainability).