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Consequences of induced hatching plasticity depend on predator community

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Abstract

Many prey species face trade-offs in the timing of life history switch points like hatching and metamorphosis. Costs associated with transitioning early depend on the biotic and abiotic conditions found in the subsequent life stage. The red-eyed treefrog, Agalychnis callidryas, faces risks from predators in multiple, successive life stages, and can hatch early in response to mortality threats at the egg stage. Here we tested how the consequences of life history plasticity, specifically early hatching in response to terrestrial egg predators, depend on the assemblage of aquatic larval predators. We predicted that diverse predator assemblages would impose lower total predation pressure than the most effective single predator species and might thereby reduce the costs of hatching early. We then conducted a mesocosm experiment where we crossed hatchling phenotype (early vs. normal hatching) with five larval-predator environments (no predators, either waterbugs, dragonflies, or mosquitofish singly, or all three predator species together). The consequences of hatching early varied across predator treatments, and tended to disappear through time in some predation treatments, notably the waterbug and diverse predator assemblages. We demonstrate that the fitness costs of life history plasticity in an early life stage depend critically on the predator community composition in the next stage.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente de Panamá for permission to conduct this research (permit SC/A-73-09). We would like to thank M. Hughey, K. Warkentin, and M. McCoy for their advice and assistance. L. Belden, as well as the reviewers and editors, made helpful suggestions to improve the manuscript. J. M. W. and B. M. were supported by a Research Opportunity Award from the National Science Foundation, stemming from NSF grant 0717220 to J. R. V; J. C. T. was supported by NSF grant IIA-1064566. Virginia Commonwealth University, Radford University, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute also provided funding or support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Radford University, P.O. Box 6931, Radford, VA, 24142, USA

    Jeremy M. Wojdak & Beth Meyer

  2. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Unit 9100, P.O. Box 0948, DPO, AA, 34002, USA

    Justin C. Touchon, Jessica L. Hite & James R. Vonesh

  3. Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 23284, USA

    Jessica L. Hite & James R. Vonesh

  4. Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Jessica L. Hite

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  1. Jeremy M. Wojdak
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  2. Justin C. Touchon
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  5. James R. Vonesh
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Correspondence to Jeremy M. Wojdak.

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Communicated by Anssi Laurila.

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Wojdak, J.M., Touchon, J.C., Hite, J.L. et al. Consequences of induced hatching plasticity depend on predator community. Oecologia 175, 1267–1276 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-014-2962-2

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