Phenotypic Plasticity in a Food Web

在这里，使用一个简单的食物链组成的顶级捕食者（蝾螈幼虫），中间捕食者（蝾螈幼虫），和青蛙蝌蚪作为猎物，我们表明，存在的风险线索大幅修改的强度在两种两栖动物的拮抗形态可塑性。在没有蜻蜓的情况下，蝌蚪产生了更凸出的身体来回应蝾螈，蝾螈通过扩大它们的张口尺寸来回应这种防御。然而，在存在的风险线索，这两个拮抗性状的表达显着减少，因为蝌蚪和蝾螈产生的表型，更有效地对抗食肉动物。

Here, using a simple food chain consisting of a top predator (dragonfly larvae), an intermediate predator (salamander larvae), and frog tadpoles as prey, we show that the presence of dragonfly risk cues substantially modifies the intensity of antagonistic morphological plasticity in both amphibians. In the absence of dragonflies, tadpoles produced bulgier bodies in response to salamanders, and salamanders responded to this defense by enlarging their gape size. However, in the presence of dragonfly risk cues, the expression of both antagonistic traits was significantly reduced because tadpoles and salamanders produced phenotypes that are more effective against dragonfly predators.