Using clay caterpillar replicas as bait for predators, Cornell graduate John Deitsch ’22 found that increased artificial light enhances caterpillar predation.
Author summary The movement of groups can be heavily influenced by ‘leader’ individuals who differ from the others in some way. A major source of differences between individuals is the repeatability and consistency of their behaviour, commonly considered as their ’personality’, which can influence both their position within a group as well as their tendency to lead. However, links between personality and behaviour may also depend upon the immediate social environment of the individual; individuals who behave consistently in one way when alone may not express the same behaviour socially, when they may be conforming with the behaviour of others. Experimental evidence shows that personality differences can be eroded in social situations, but there is currently a lack of theory to identify the conditions where we would expect personality to be suppressed. Here, we develop a simple model of a small group of individuals who differ in their tendency to perform risky be
Explaining the distribution and abundance patterns of organisms in the natural environment is a central objective of ecological theory. Predation and competition have long been seen as major drivers of diversity and abundance, while more recently ‘supply-side’ ecology has developed as a potentially important factor explaining populations dynamics. Marine sessile and sedentary species comprise a large component of rocky shoreline biodiversity. For many benthic organisms, broadcast spawning is the primary mode of reproduction with extremely high larval output potentially making larval supply a key step in their ecology. Large-scale studies (over 100’s of km’s) of supply-side ecology are uncommon. Aquaculture, however, provides a perfect opportunity to conduct large-scale ‘supply-side’ research by substantially increasing source populations and the opportunity for increased larval supply. The smoothshelled mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis is farmed in two open coastal embaymen