Anti-predator behavioral variation among Physa acuta in response to temporally fluctuating predation risk by Procambarus.

Research in behavioral ecology routinely quantifies individual variation in behavior using transitions between discrete environments, for example prey moving from a no predator to predator treatment. This research often ignores behavioral variation in response to temporal fluctuations in environmental conditions around an unchanging mean environment. In this study we evaluate the effects of temporal fluctuations in predation risk (predator cue concentration of Procambarus spp.), without the confounding effects of a changing mean, on among-individual variation in anti-predator behavior in freshwater snails (Physa acuta). We also evaluate how the interaction between environmental and individual variation affects snail survival and reproduction by exposing snails to lethal predators following the behavioral assays. Our analyses revealed a trend towards higher among-individual variation in mean behavior when snails were exposed to intermediate levels of environmental variation compared to highly variable or constant environments. However, because of large uncertainty in estimates of among-individual variation, differences among treatments were indistinguishable from noise for most, but not all behaviors. In the lethal predator trials, snail survival and time to mortality was the lowest in the high variation environment. Also, as environmental variation increased snail egg production decreased and snails laid more of their eggs underneath a provided shelter.