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Nonadditive impacts of temperature and basal resource availability on predator–prey interactions and phenotypes

  • Community ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Predicting the impacts of climate change on communities requires understanding how temperature affects predator–prey interactions under different biotic conditions. In cases of size-specific predation, environmental influences on the growth rate of one or both species can determine predation rates. For example, warming increases top–down control of food webs, although this depends on resource availability for prey, as increased resources may allow prey to reach a size refuge. Moreover, because the magnitude of inducible defenses depends on predation rates and resource availability for prey, temperature and resource levels also affect phenotypic plasticity. To examine these issues, we manipulated the presence/absence of predatory Hynobius retardatus salamander larvae and herbivorous Rana pirica tadpoles at two temperatures and three basal resource levels. and measured their morphology, behavior, growth and survival. Prior work has shown that both species express antagonistic plasticity against one another in which salamanders enlarge their gape width and tadpoles increase their body width to reach a size-refuge. We found that increased temperatures increased predation rates, although this was counteracted by high basal resource availability, which further decreased salamander growth. Surprisingly, salamanders caused tadpoles to grow larger and express more extreme defensive phenotypes as resource levels decreased under warming, most likely due to their increased risk of predation. Thus, temperature and resources influenced defensive phenotype expression and its impacts on predator and prey growth by affecting their interaction strength. Our results indicate that basal resource levels can modify the impacts of increased temperatures on predator–prey interactions and its consequences for food webs.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Kunio Takatsu, Ayumi Tezuka, Tomoko Sato, Emiko Taniguchi, Shiho Chiba and all of members of Teshio Experimental forest for their very helpful assistance. Nick Rasmussen provided statistical advice and Steve Kohler and several anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments that improved the manuscript. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 24370004 to O. Kishida.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Zacharia J. Costa

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, TX, 77005, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1000 W Cary St, Richmond, VA, 23284-2012, USA

    Zacharia J. Costa

  2. Teshio Experimental Forest, Field Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Toikanbetsu, Horonobe, Hokkaido, 098-2943, Japan

    Osamu Kishida

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  1. Zacharia J. Costa
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Correspondence to Zacharia J. Costa.

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Communicated by Steven Kohler.

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Costa, Z.J., Kishida, O. Nonadditive impacts of temperature and basal resource availability on predator–prey interactions and phenotypes. Oecologia 178, 1215–1225 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3302-x

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