ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia.
Ecol Evol. 2012 Jan;3(1):38-47. doi: 10.1002/ece3.388. Epub 2012 Nov 27.
Elevated water temperatures, a decrease in ocean pH, and an increasing prevalence of severe storms have lead to bleaching and death of the hard corals that underpin coral reef ecosystems. As coral cover declines, fish diversity and abundance declines. How degradation of coral reefs affects behavior of reef inhabitants is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that risk assessment behaviors of prey are severely affected by coral degradation. Juvenile damselfish were exposed to visual and olfactory indicators of predation risk in healthy live, thermally bleached, and dead coral in a series of laboratory and field experiments. While fish still responded to visual cues in all habitats, they did not respond to olfactory indicators of risk in dead coral habitats, likely as a result of alteration or degradation of chemical cues. These cues are critical for learning and avoiding predators, and a failure to respond can have dramatic repercussions for survival and recruitment.
水温升高、海洋 pH 值降低以及强风暴频发导致为珊瑚礁生态系统提供支撑的硬珊瑚出现白化和死亡。随着珊瑚覆盖率的下降，鱼类的多样性和丰富度也随之下降。珊瑚礁退化如何影响珊瑚礁生物的行为尚不清楚。在这里，我们证明了猎物的风险评估行为受到珊瑚退化的严重影响。在一系列实验室和野外实验中，幼年雀鲷暴露在健康活体、受热白化和死亡珊瑚的视觉和嗅觉捕食风险指示物下。虽然鱼类在所有栖息地仍然对视觉线索做出反应，但它们在死亡珊瑚栖息地对嗅觉风险指示物没有反应，这可能是由于化学线索的改变或退化。这些线索对于学习和躲避捕食者至关重要，如果不能做出反应，将对生存和繁殖产生巨大影响。
