Data and analysis script for: Norin et al (in prep) Predator presence affects activity patterns but not food consumption or growth of juvenile corkwing wrasse (Symphodus melops)
Please see readme file.
Abstract: Indirect effects of predators can manifest themselves as changes in prey behaviour and physiology. Reduced prey activity is a common behavioural response to predation risk, generally resulting in reduced foraging and growth. Given that digestion requires energy, it has been suggested that prey will choose to eat smaller meals under predation risk to reserve a larger portion of the aerobic metabolic scope they have available for energetically demanding tasks more critical than digestion, such asescape. To test this prediction, we quantified food consumption and growth of juvenile corkwing wrasses (Symphodus melops) over 11 days in the presence or absence of a predator (Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua). We then quantified behaviour and food consumption of the same wrasses in behavioural arenas with a predator present. All food consumption data were examined in the context of the aerobic scope that would have been available during the digestive period. Overall, there was no effect ofpredator exposure on food consumption or growth, yet predator-exposed wrasses were more consistent in their daily food consumption, lending some support to our prediction of prey bet-hedging on meal size under predation risk. The lack of a clear pattern may have resulted from a relatively low percentage of aerobic scope (~20-27%) beingoccupied by digestion, such that fish retained ample aerobic scope for activities other than digestion. In the subsequent behavioural trials, predator-exposed wrasses weremore active and spent more time near the cod than predator-naïve wrasses, suggesting the former had habituated to predation threat and were more risk-taking.Our results highlight the complex and often counter-intuitive effects that predator presence can have on prey populations beyond direct consumption.

Data and analysis script for: Norin et al (in prep) Predator presence affects activity patterns but not food consumption or growth of juvenile corkwing wrasse (Symphodus melops)
Please see readme file.
Abstract: Indirect effects of predators can manifest themselves as changes in prey behaviour and physiology. Reduced prey activity is a common behavioural response to predation risk, generally resulting in reduced foraging and growth. Given that digestion requires energy, it has been suggested that prey will choose to eat smaller meals under predation risk to reserve a larger portion of the aerobic metabolic scope they have available for energetically demanding tasks more critical than digestion, such asescape. To test this prediction, we quantified food consumption and growth of juvenile corkwing wrasses (Symphodus melops) over 11 days in the presence or absence of a predator (Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua). We then quantified behaviour and food consumption of the same wrasses in behavioural arenas with a predator present. All food consumption data were examined in the context of the aerobic scope that would have been available during the digestive period. Overall, there was no effect ofpredator exposure on food consumption or growth, yet predator-exposed wrasses were more consistent in their daily food consumption, lending some support to our prediction of prey bet-hedging on meal size under predation risk. The lack of a clear pattern may have resulted from a relatively low percentage of aerobic scope (~20-27%) beingoccupied by digestion, such that fish retained ample aerobic scope for activities other than digestion. In the subsequent behavioural trials, predator-exposed wrasses weremore active and spent more time near the cod than predator-naïve wrasses, suggesting the former had habituated to predation threat and were more risk-taking.Our results highlight the complex and often counter-intuitive effects that predator presence can have on prey populations beyond direct consumption.

Data for: Roche DG, Amcoff M, Morgan R, Sundin J, Andreassen AH, Finnøen MH, Lawrence MJ, Henderson E, Norin T, Speers-Roesch B, Brown C, Clark TD, Bshary R, Leungt B, Jutfelt F and Binning SA (in prep) Replication alert: behavioural lateralization in a detour test is not repeatable in fishes
Please see the readme.txt file for metadata.
Abstract:
1. Behavioural lateralisation, defined as the asymmetric expression of cognitive functions, is reported to enhance key fitness-relevant traits such as group coordination, multitasking and predator escape performance. Therefore, studies reporting negative effects on lateralisation in fish due to environmental stressors such as ocean acidification, hypoxia, and pollutants are worrisome. However, such studies tend to use a detour test and focus on population-level measures, without validating whether lateralisation measured using this method is consistent within individuals across time.2. We conducted a multi-species, international assessment of the repeatability (R) of lateralisation in four previously studied fish species (Ctenolabrus rupestris, Danio rerio, Neopomacentrus azysron, and Pomacentrus amboinensis) using a detour test (T-maze), a common method for testing lateralisation. We also re-analysed a published dataset on guppies (Poecilia reticulata) using new statistical methods. We expected the three shoaling species to exhibit greater within-individual consistency in lateralisation than their non-shoaling counterparts given previous reports of stronger lateralisation in group-living fishes. 3. Absolute and relative lateralisation scores were highly non-repeatable in all five species (0.01<R<0.08), irrespective of their shoaling status. We carefully reviewed 31 published studies in which the detour test was employed to examine lateralisation in fish and identified statistical issues in all of them. We develop and propose new statistical analyses to test for population- and individual-level lateralisation (along with open code). 4. The commonly used detour test does not appear to be an appropriate method for quantifying behavioural lateralisation in fishes, calling into question functional inferences drawn by many published studies, including our own. As a consequence, potential fitness benefits of lateralisation and anthropogenic effects on lateralisation as a proxy for adaptive brain functioning need to be assessed with alternative paradigms.

Data for: Roche DG, Amcoff M, Morgan R, Sundin J, Andreassen AH, Finnøen MH, Lawrence MJ, Henderson E, Norin T, Speers-Roesch B, Brown C, Clark TD, Bshary R, Leungt B, Jutfelt F and Binning SA (in prep) Replication alert: behavioural lateralization in a detour test is not repeatable in fishes
Please see the readme.txt file for metadata.
Abstract:
1. Behavioural lateralisation, defined as the asymmetric expression of cognitive functions, is reported to enhance key fitness-relevant traits such as group coordination, multitasking and predator escape performance. Therefore, studies reporting negative effects on lateralisation in fish due to environmental stressors such as ocean acidification, hypoxia, and pollutants are worrisome. However, such studies tend to use a detour test and focus on population-level measures, without validating whether lateralisation measured using this method is consistent within individuals across time.2. We conducted a multi-species, international assessment of the repeatability (R) of lateralisation in four previously studied fish species (Ctenolabrus rupestris, Danio rerio, Neopomacentrus azysron, and Pomacentrus amboinensis) using a detour test (T-maze), a common method for testing lateralisation. We also re-analysed a published dataset on guppies (Poecilia reticulata) using new statistical methods. We expected the three shoaling species to exhibit greater within-individual consistency in lateralisation than their non-shoaling counterparts given previous reports of stronger lateralisation in group-living fishes. 3. Absolute and relative lateralisation scores were highly non-repeatable in all five species (0.01<R<0.08), irrespective of their shoaling status. We carefully reviewed 31 published studies in which the detour test was employed to examine lateralisation in fish and identified statistical issues in all of them. We develop and propose new statistical analyses to test for population- and individual-level lateralisation (along with open code). 4. The commonly used detour test does not appear to be an appropriate method for quantifying behavioural lateralisation in fishes, calling into question functional inferences drawn by many published studies, including our own. As a consequence, potential fitness benefits of lateralisation and anthropogenic effects on lateralisation as a proxy for adaptive brain functioning need to be assessed with alternative paradigms.

<b>Abstract</b><br/>We present the first data to link physiological responses and pathogen presence with subsequent fate during migration of wild salmonid smolts. We tagged and non-lethally sampled gill tissue from sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) smolts as they left their nursery lake (Chilko Lake, BC, Canada) to compare gene expression profiles and freshwater pathogen loads with migration success over the first ~1150 km of their migration to the North Pacific Ocean using acoustic telemetry. Fifteen percent of smolts were never detected again after release and these fish had gene expression profiles consistent with an immune response to one or more viral pathogens compared with fish that survived their freshwater migration. Among the significantly up-regulated genes of the fish that were never detected post-release were MX (Interferon-induced GTP-binding Protein Mx) and STAT1 (Signal transducer and activator of transcription 1-alpha/beta), which are characteristic of a type I interferon response to viral pathogens. The most commonly detected pathogen in the smolts leaving the nursery lake was infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV). Collectively, these data show that some of the fish assumed to have died after leaving the nursery lake appeared to be responding to one or more viral pathogens and had elevated stress levels that could have contributed to some of the mortality shortly after release. We present the first evidence that changes in gene expression may be predictive of some of the fresh water migration mortality in wild salmonid smolts.

Raw data to replicate the results within the paper: "Long-term acclimation to near-future ocean acidification has negligible effects on energetic attributes in a juvenile coral reef fish".

Raw data to replicate the results within the paper: "Long-term acclimation to near-future ocean acidification has negligible effects on energetic attributes in a juvenile coral reef fish".

Data for: Roche DG, Amcoff M, Morgan R, Sundin J, Andreassen AH, Finnøen MH, Lawrence MJ, Henderson E, Norin T, Speers-Roesch B, Brown C, Clark TD, Bshary R, Leungt B, Jutfelt F and Binning SA (in prep) Replication alert: behavioural lateralization in a detour test is not repeatable in fishes
Please see the readme.txt file for metadata.
Abstract:
Behavioural lateralisation, defined as the asymmetric expression of cognitive functions, is reported to enhance key fitness-relevant traits such as predator escape performance, multitasking abilities, and group coordination. Therefore, studies reporting negative effects on lateralisation in fish due to environmental stressors such as ocean acidification, hypoxia, and pollutants are worrisome. However, such studies have focussed on population-level measures, without validating whether lateralisation is consistent within individuals across time. We conducted a multi-species, international assessment of the repeatability (R) of lateralisation in four previously studied fish species using the common detour test, and re-analysed a published dataset (on guppies) using new statistical methods. We expected the three shoaling species to exhibit greater within-individual consistency in lateralisation than their non-shoaling counterparts given previous reports of stronger lateralisation in group-living fishes. However, both absolute and relative lateralisation scores were highly non-repeatable in all five species (0.01<R<0.08). Thus, the commonly used detour test does not appear to be appropriate for quantifying behavioural lateralisation in fishes, calling into question inferences drawn by many published studies, including our own. As a consequence, potential anthropogenic effects on lateralisation as a proxy for adaptive brain functioning need to be assessed with alternative paradigms.

Data for: Roche DG, Amcoff M, Morgan R, Sundin J, Andreassen AH, Finnøen MH, Lawrence MJ, Henderson E, Norin T, Speers-Roesch B, Brown C, Clark TD, Bshary R, Leungt B, Jutfelt F and Binning SA (in prep) Replication alert: behavioural lateralization in a detour test is not repeatable in fishes
Please see the readme.txt file for metadata.
Abstract:
1. Behavioural lateralisation, defined as the asymmetric expression of cognitive functions, is reported to enhance key fitness-relevant traits such as group coordination, multitasking and predator escape performance. Therefore, studies reporting negative effects on lateralisation in fish due to environmental stressors such as ocean acidification, hypoxia, and pollutants are worrisome. However, such studies tend to use a detour test and focus on population-level measures, without validating whether lateralisation measured using this method is consistent within individuals across time.2. We conducted a multi-species, international assessment of the repeatability (R) of lateralisation in four previously studied fish species (Ctenolabrus rupestris, Danio rerio, Neopomacentrus azysron, and Pomacentrus amboinensis) using a detour test (T-maze), a common method for testing lateralisation. We also re-analysed a published dataset on guppies (Poecilia reticulata) using new statistical methods. We expected the three shoaling species to exhibit greater within-individual consistency in lateralisation than their non-shoaling counterparts given previous reports of stronger lateralisation in group-living fishes. 3. Absolute and relative lateralisation scores were highly non-repeatable in all five species (0.01<R<0.08), irrespective of their shoaling status. We carefully reviewed 31 published studies in which the detour test was employed to examine lateralisation in fish and identified statistical issues in all of them. We develop and propose new statistical analyses to test for population- and individual-level lateralisation (along with open code). 4. The commonly used detour test does not appear to be an appropriate method for quantifying behavioural lateralisation in fishes, calling into question functional inferences drawn by many published studies, including our own. As a consequence, potential fitness benefits of lateralisation and anthropogenic effects on lateralisation as a proxy for adaptive brain functioning need to be assessed with alternative paradigms.

Feeding provides the necessary energy to fuel all fitness-related processes including activity, growth and reproduction. Nevertheless, prey consumption and digestive processes can have physical and physiological trade-offs with other critical functions, many of which are not clearly understood. Using an ambush predator, barramundi (Lates calcarifer), fed meals ranging 0.6–3.4% of body mass, we examined interrelations between meal size, growth efficiency and surplus aerobic metabolic capacity (aerobic scope, AS). Large meals required a greater absolute investment of energy to process (a larger so-called specific dynamic action, SDA), but the percentage of digestible meal energy required in the SDA response (SDA coefficient) decreased with increasing meal size. Combined with the findings that growth rate and growth efficiency also increased with food intake, our results demonstrate that it is energetically advantageous for fish to select large prey. However, following a large meal, SDA processes occupied up to 77% of the available AS, indicating that other oxygen-demanding activities like swimming may be compromised while large meals are processed. This trade-off between meal size and AS suggests that fishes like barramundi would benefit from regulating prey size based on imminent requirements and threats.