Form Submission: Participation Entry

The relationship between predators and their prey has long been viewed as a gradual antagonism, in which adaptation occurs slowly through reciprocal shifts in hunting and evasion tactics. Behavioral shifts are an immediate way for prey to cope with change because behavioral responses are rapid and highly flexible. Predation risk varies in both time and space, which has theoretically favored the evolution of prey behavioral plasticity. However, ecologists are increasingly recognizing that individuals exhibit a high degree of behavioral consistency. Consistent behavior across environmental context is termed a personality trait, which has important implications for the outcome of ecological interactions. I used old-field arthropods as a model system understand the effects of personality within food web interactions. I set out to measure (1) whether herbivore personality is plastic over an individual’s lifetime (2) whether herbivore personality is plastic under predation risk (3) and whether personality influences the magnitude of herbivory and lifetime survival.