98th ESA Annual Meeting (August 4 -- 9, 2013)

August 03 - 09, 2013

OOS 32

Ecophysiological Effects Of Predation Risk

Predation has been central to ecology since the inception of the discipline, but only recently have we begun to explore and understand the importance of non-lethal predator effects. These effects can act at any level from the individual up to the ecosystem and can drive evolutionary changes through maternal stress effects. Non-lethal predation effects can change adult prey morphology, physiology, and behavior and alter developmental pathways which can persist into adulthood. Further, studies have demonstrated that non-lethal predation effects can be as large if not larger than actual lethal predation. Although great effort has gone into determining the role of non-lethal predation effects, we have barely scratched the surface on the diversity of prey responses or their consequences for prey fitness and ecosystem level processes. The session will cover the diversity and role of prey ecophysiological responses to non-lethal predator effects across all scales, from the individual to the ecosystem to evolutionary intergenerational effects. The session will be organized in order of increasing scale. It will start with physiological mechanisms, work up to the level of individuals, cover intergenerational effects and, lastly, ecosystem level processes. The talks will cover a broad range of prey taxa including birds, mammals, insects, and fish. A broad range of physiological mechanisms will be investigated, including corticoid stress responses, maternal stress effects, changes in reproduction, immunity, neurobiology and nutritional physiology. The session will promote cross-fertilization of ideas between researchers working with a variety of taxa and across a range of different levels of study (ecophysiology to ecosystem dynamics). Talks will include discussion of issues in sustainability such as the use of predators in sustainable agriculture and the role of predators in ecosystem change.