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How well do predators adjust to climate-mediated shifts in prey distribution? A study on Australian water pythons
journal contribution
posted on 2011-03-01, 00:00 authored by Beata UjvariBeata Ujvari, R Shine, Thomas MadsenThomas MadsenClimate change can move the spatial location of resources critical for population viability, and a species' resilience to such changes will depend upon its ability to flexibly shift its activities away from no-longer-suitable sites to exploit new opportunities. Intuition suggests that vagile predators should be able to track spatial shifts in prey availability, but our data on water pythons (Liasis fuscus) in tropical Australia suggest a less encouraging scenario. These pythons undergo regular long-range (to >10 km) seasonal migrations to follow flooding-induced migrations by their prey (native dusky rats, Rattus colletti). However, when an extreme flooding event virtually eliminated rats for a three-year period, the local pythons did not disperse despite the presence of abundant rats only 8 km away; instead, many pythons starved to death. This inflexibility suggests that some vagile species that track seasonally migrating prey may do so by responding to habitat attributes that have consistently predicted prey availability over evolutionary time, rather than reacting to proximate cues that signal the presence of prey per se. A species' vulnerability to climate change will be increased by an inability to shift its activities away from historical sites toward newly favorable areas.
History
Journal
EcologyVolume
92Issue
3Pagination
777 - 783Publisher
John Wiley & SonsLocation
Chichester, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
0012-9658Language
engPublication classification
C Journal article; C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2011, Ecological Society of AmericaUsage metrics
Keywords
climate changedusky ratsextreme climatic eventsLiasis fuscuspredator-prey demographyRattus collettispacial heterogeneitytropical Australiavagile specieswater pythonsScience & TechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicineEcologyEnvironmental Sciences & Ecologyspatial heterogeneityDYNAMICSRATSPOPULATIONDISPERSALIMPACTSEvolutionary BiologyEcology
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