Landscapes of fear in the Anthropocene: Linking predation risk and human disturbance to animal behavior and ecological outcomes

捕食者通过消耗猎物在构建生态系统中发挥着关键作用。最近，理论和实验证据表明，捕食者对猎物的非消耗性影响可能超过猎物的去除效果，这表明捕食的威胁可能比捕食本身更重要的生态。被捕食动物不断地在恐惧的景观中航行，或者在捕食者遭遇和捕获的风险中感知时空异质性。避开危险区域会减少可用的栖息地，在高风险区域调整觅食和警惕等活动会产生重大的生理和机会成本。因此，这些捕食者引起的猎物行为的变化可能会危及生存和繁殖，并塑造猎物与生态系统中其他物种的相互作用。尽管捕食风险效应的潜在重要性，但关于捕食在自由放养的大型哺乳动物种群和生态系统中的非消耗性效应的作用仍然存在争议。 人类干扰可能会沿着沿着多条途径重塑动物的恐惧景观：管理行动导致捕食者的损失和恢复，人类活动和基础设施为野生动物提供了新的风险来源，土地使用和全球变化改变了捕食风险的竞争环境。为了预测和减轻全球人类足迹不断扩大对生物多样性的影响，我们必须了解动物对人类干扰反应的生态机制。我的长期研究计划旨在加深我们对这些机制的理解，重点是风险权衡如何塑造大型陆生哺乳动物的行为。在接下来的五年里，我的研究小组将通过数据合成和在非洲和北美的实地考察来实现这一长期目标。我们的短期目标是：（1）研究顶级食肉动物返回莫桑比克戈龙戈萨国家公园如何重塑了对羚羊猎物的恐惧景观;（2）综合全球相机陷阱数据集，以量化人类干扰对全球物种相互作用的影响;（3）探讨不同类型的人类活动、态度和行为如何塑造北美恐惧的社会生态景观。这项研究的组成部分将是三个博士，三个硕士和六个理科学生在野外生态学和数据科学的培训。通过这项工作，我的目标是提高我们对捕食风险在陆地生态系统中的作用的理解，最终为生物多样性保护和人类与野生动物在日益拥挤的地球上共存的战略提供信息。

Predators play a key role in structuring ecosystems through the consumption of prey. Recently, theoretical and experimental evidence have demonstrated that the non-consumptive effects of predators on prey can potentially exceed the effects of prey removal, suggesting that the threat of predation may be even more ecologically important than predation itself. Prey animals are constantly navigating landscapes of fear, or perceived spatiotemporal heterogeneity in the risk of predator encounter and capture. Avoidance of risky areas can reduce available habitat, and the modulation of activities like foraging and vigilance in areas of high perceived risk can have significant physiological and opportunity costs. These predator-induced shifts in prey behavior can thus compromise survival and reproduction and shape prey interactions with other species in the ecosystem. Despite the potential importance of predation risk effects, there remains debate about the role of non-consumptive effects of predation in free-ranging, large mammal populations and ecosystems. Human disturbance may reshape animals' landscapes of fear along multiple pathways: management actions contribute to the loss and recovery of predators, human activity and infrastructure present novel perceived sources of risk for wild animals, and land use and global change alter the playing field of predation risk. To anticipate and mitigate the impacts of the expanding global human footprint on biodiversity, we must understand the ecological mechanisms that underpin animal responses to human disturbance. My long-term research program aims to deepen our understanding of these mechanisms, with a focus on how risk trade-offs shape the behavior of large-bodied, terrestrial mammals. Over the next five years, my research group will work towards this long-term goal through data synthesis and fieldwork in Africa and North America. Our short-term objectives are to: (1) Examine how the return of apex carnivores to Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, has reshaped landscapes of fear for antelope prey; (2) Synthesize global camera trap datasets to quantify the influence of human disturbance on species interactions worldwide; and (3) Explore how different types of human activity, attitudes, and behaviors shape socio-ecological landscapes of fear in North America. Integral to this research will be the training of three PhD, three MSc, and six BSc students in field ecology and data science. Through this work, I aim to advance our understanding of the role of predation risk in terrestrial ecosystems, ultimately informing strategies for biodiversity conservation and human-wildlife coexistence on an increasingly crowded planet.