In order to effectively thwart predation, antipredator defensive behaviors must be matched to the current spatio-temporal relationship to the predator. We have proposed a model where different defensive responses are organized along a predatory imminence continuum (PIC). The PIC is a behavior system organized as a sequence of innately programmed be...
A narrative in ecology is that prey modify traits to reduce predation risk, and the trait modification has costs large enough to cause ensuing demographic, trophic and ecosystem consequences, with implications for conservation, management and agriculture. But ecology has a long history of emphasising that quantifying the importance of an ecological...
For species primarily regulated by a common predator, the P* rule of Holt & Lawton (Holt & Lawton, 1993. Am. Nat. 142, 623-645. (doi:10.1086/285561)) predicts that the prey species that supports the highest mean predator density (P*) excludes the other prey species. This prediction is re-examined in the presence of temporal fluctuations in the vita...
The darkness of the deep ocean limits the vision of diving predators, except when prey emit bioluminescence. It is hypothesized that deep-diving seals rely on highly developed whiskers to locate their prey. However, if and how seals use their whiskers while foraging in natural conditions remains unknown. We used animal-borne tags to show that free-...
Predators can strongly influence prey populations through both consumptive and non-consumptive effects. Nevertheless, most studies have focused on the consumptive effects in driving evolutionary changes. By integrating experimental evolution and resurrection ecology, we tested the roles of non-consumptive and consumptive effects in driving evolutio...
While considerable evidence exists of biogeographic patterns in the intensity of species interactions, the influence of these patterns on variation in community structure is less clear. Studying how the distributions of traits in communities vary along global gradients can inform how variation in interactions and other factors contribute to the pro...
The obligate marine actinobacterial genus Salinispora has become a model organism for natural product discovery, yet little is known about the ecological functions of the compounds produced by this taxon. The aims of this study were to assess the effects of live cultures and culture extracts from two Salinispora species on invertebrate predators. I...
Spider webs are finely tuned multifunctional structures, widely studied for their prey capture functionalities such as impact strength and stickiness. However, they are also sophisticated sensing tools that enable the spider to precisely determine the location of impact and capture the prey before it escapes. In this paper, we suggest a new mechani...
Daphnia, an ecologically important zooplankton species in lakes, shows both genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in response to temperature and fish predation, but little is known about the molecular basis of these responses and their potential interactions. We performed a factorial experiment exposing laboratory-propagated Daphnia pulicari...
Siphonophores (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) are abundant and diverse gelatinous predators in open-ocean ecosystems. Due to limited access to the midwater, little is known about the diets of most deep-dwelling gelatinous species, which constrains our understanding of food-web structure and nutrient flow in these vast ecosystems. Visual gut-content methods ca...
