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The Many Faces of Fear: Comparing the Pathways and Impacts of Nonconsumptive Predator Effects on Prey Populations

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  • Evan L Preisser
  • Daniel I Bolnick

Abstract

Background: Most ecological models assume that predator and prey populations interact solely through consumption: predators reduce prey densities by killing and consuming individual prey. However, predators can also reduce prey densities by forcing prey to adopt costly defensive strategies. Methodology/Principal Findings: We build on a simple Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model to provide a heuristic tool for distinguishing between the demographic effects of consumption (consumptive effects) and of anti-predator defenses (nonconsumptive effects), and for distinguishing among the multiple mechanisms by which anti-predator defenses might reduce prey population growth rates. We illustrate these alternative pathways for nonconsumptive effects with selected empirical examples, and use a meta-analysis of published literature to estimate the mean effect size of each pathway. Overall, predation risk tends to have a much larger impact on prey foraging behavior than measures of growth, survivorship, or fecundity. Conclusions/Significance: While our model provides a concise framework for understanding the many potential NCE pathways and their relationships to each other, our results confirm empirical research showing that prey are able to partially compensate for changes in energy income, mitigating the fitness effects of defensive changes in time budgets. Distinguishing the many facets of nonconsumptive effects raises some novel questions, and will help guide both empirical and theoretical studies of how predation risk affects prey dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Evan L Preisser & Daniel I Bolnick, 2008. "The Many Faces of Fear: Comparing the Pathways and Impacts of Nonconsumptive Predator Effects on Prey Populations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(6), pages 1-8, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0002465
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002465
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Dubey, Balram & Sajan, & Kumar, Ankit, 2021. "Stability switching and chaos in a multiple delayed prey–predator model with fear effect and anti-predator behavior," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 164-192.
    2. Yousef, Fatma Bozkurt & Yousef, Ali & Maji, Chandan, 2021. "Effects of fear in a fractional-order predator-prey system with predator density-dependent prey mortality," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    3. Liang, Ziwei & Meng, Xinyou, 2023. "Stability and Hopf bifurcation of a multiple delayed predator–prey system with fear effect, prey refuge and Crowley–Martin function," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 175(P1).
    4. Tiwari, Vandana & Tripathi, Jai Prakash & Mishra, Swati & Upadhyay, Ranjit Kumar, 2020. "Modeling the fear effect and stability of non-equilibrium patterns in mutually interfering predator–prey systems," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 371(C).
    5. Roy, Jyotirmoy & Alam, Shariful, 2020. "Fear factor in a prey–predator system in deterministic and stochastic environment," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 541(C).
    6. Yangyang Su & Tongqian Zhang, 2022. "Global Dynamics of a Predator–Prey Model with Fear Effect and Impulsive State Feedback Control," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-23, April.
    7. Narayan Mondal & Dipesh Barman & Shariful Alam, 2021. "Impact of adult predator incited fear in a stage-structured prey–predator model," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 9280-9307, June.
    8. Liu, Junli & Liu, Bairu & Lv, Pan & Zhang, Tailei, 2021. "An eco-epidemiological model with fear effect and hunting cooperation," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    9. Sahu, S.R. & Raw, S.N., 2023. "Appearance of chaos and bi-stability in a fear induced delayed predator–prey system: A mathematical modeling study," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 175(P1).
    10. Seralan Vinoth & R. Vadivel & Nien-Tsu Hu & Chin-Sheng Chen & Nallappan Gunasekaran, 2023. "Bifurcation Analysis in a Harvested Modified Leslie–Gower Model Incorporated with the Fear Factor and Prey Refuge," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-25, July.
    11. Das, Meghadri & Samanta, G.P., 2020. "A delayed fractional order food chain model with fear effect and prey refuge," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 218-245.
    12. Mukherjee, Debasis, 2020. "Role of fear in predator–prey system with intraspecific competition," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 263-275.
    13. Thirthar, Ashraf Adnan & Majeed, Salam J. & Alqudah, Manar A. & Panja, Prabir & Abdeljawad, Thabet, 2022. "Fear effect in a predator-prey model with additional food, prey refuge and harvesting on super predator," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).

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