Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Perceived Risk Of Predation Affects Reproductive Life - History Traits In Gambusia Holbrooki, But Not In Heterandria Formosa, Shomen Mukherjee, Michael R. Heithaus, Joel C. Trexler, Jayanti Ray-Mukherjee, Jeremy Vaudo

Open Access Publishing Fund

Key to predicting impacts of predation is understanding the mechanisms through which predators impact prey populations. While consumptive effects are well-known, non-consumptive predator effects (risk effects) are increasingly being recognized as important. Studies of risk effects, however, have focused largely on how trade-offs between food and safety affect fitness. Less documented, and appreciated, is the potential for predator presence to directly suppress prey reproduction and affect life-history characteristics. For the first time, we tested the effects of visual predator cues on reproduction of two prey species with different reproductive modes, lecithotrophy (i.e. embryonic development primarily fueled by yolk) and matrotrophy …