St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

The effect of aggregation on visibility in open water

Thumbnail
View/Open
Sonke_manuscript_proc_B_revised_changes_accepted.pdf (193.4Kb)
Date
28/09/2016
Author
Ruxton, Graeme D.
Johnsen, Sönke
Keywords
Anti-predator defence
Attack abatement
Dilution of risk
Grouping
School
Shoal
QH301 Biology
Medicine(all)
Immunology and Microbiology(all)
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Environmental Science(all)
Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
Aggregation is a common life-history trait in open-water taxa. Qualitative understanding of how aggregation by prey influences their encounter rates with predators is critical for understanding pelagic predator-prey interactions and trophic webs.We extend a recently developed theory on underwater visibility to predict the consequences of grouping in open-water species in terms of increased visual detection of groups by predators. Our model suggests that enhanced visibility will be relatively modest, with maximum detection distance typically only doubling for a 100-fold increase in the number of prey in a group. This result suggests that although larger groups are more easily detected, this cost to aggregation will in many cases be dominated by benefits, especially through risk dilution in situations where predators cannot consume all members of a discovered group. This, in turn, helps to explain the ubiquity of grouping across a great variety of open-water taxa.
Citation
Ruxton , G D & Johnsen , S 2016 , ' The effect of aggregation on visibility in open water ' , Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , vol. 283 , no. 1839 , 20161463 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.1463
Publication
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.1463
ISSN
0962-8452
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016, the Author(s). This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/0.1098/rspb.2016.1463
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12707

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter