Abstract
Prey organisms are expected to use different short- and long-term responses to predation risk to avoid excessive costs. Contrasting both types of responses is important to identify chronic stress responses and possible compensatory mechanisms in order to better understand the full impact of predators on prey life history and population dynamics. Using larvae of the damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum, we contrasted the effects of short- and long-term predation risk, with special focus on consequences for body stoichiometry. Under short-term predation risk, larvae reduced growth rate, which was associated with a reduced food intake, increased metabolic rate and reduced glucose content. Under long-term predation risk, larvae showed chronic predator stress as indicated by persistent increases in metabolic rate and reduced food intake. Despite this, larvae were able to compensate for the short-term growth reduction under long-term predation risk by relying on physiological compensatory mechanisms, including reduced energy storage. Only under long-term predation risk did we observe an increase in body C:N ratio, as predicted under the general stress paradigm (GSP). Although this was caused by a predator-induced decrease in N content, there was no associated increase in C content. These stoichiometric changes could not be explained by GSP responses because, under chronic predation risk, there was no decrease in N-rich proteins or increase in C-rich fat and sugars; instead glycogen decreased. Our results highlight the importance of compensatory mechanisms and the value of explicitly integrating physiological mechanisms to obtain insights into the temporal dynamics of non-consumptive effects, including effects on body stoichiometry.
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Acknowledgments
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. We appreciate the constructive feedback of Jill Lancaster and two anonymous reviewers that considerably improved our manuscript. L. J. is a postdoctoral fellow of FWO-Flanders and benefited from a PDM fellowship of the KU Leuven. Financial support came from the Belspo project SPEEDY, KU Leuven Excellence Center Financing PF/2010/07 and FWO research Grant G.0943.15.
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MVD, LJ and RS conceived and designed the experiment. MVD and LJ performed the experiment. MVD, LJ and RS analysed the data. LJ, MVD and RS wrote the manuscript. MVD and LJ are joint first author.
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Communicated by Jill Lancaster.
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Van Dievel, M., Janssens, L. & Stoks, R. Short- and long-term behavioural, physiological and stoichiometric responses to predation risk indicate chronic stress and compensatory mechanisms. Oecologia 181, 347–357 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3440-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3440-1