Murky Waters: Turbidity's effect on aquatic predation (2014)

Undergraduate: Zachary Locklear

Faculty Advisor: Doreen Thierauf
Department: Environmental Science

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Temporary pond ecosystems are bodies of water that are dry for part of the year. This creates a unique aquatic habitat without fish. Instead, amphibians, such as frogs and newts, dominate the food web, which allows for interesting predator-prey interactions. There are two categories of the effects of these interactions: lethal and non-lethal. Lethal or consumptive effects (CEs) involve predator killing prey, reducing prey population. Non-lethal or nonconsumptive effects (NCEs) are behavioral shifts in the prey population, including a change in microhabitat and activity level. While there exist some studies on the NCEs of predation in temporary ponds, they ignore environmental shifts such as increases in turbidity, i.e. the amount of particles suspended in water. To understand the mechanisms that affect predation, I analyze scholarly journal articles and popular sources to determine the effect that turbidity has on the predation of Pine Barrens tree frogs by red-spotted newts. I suggest that turbidity affects the NCEs by changing activity level and location of Pine Barrens tree frog larvae within the ecosystem. Also, it reduces the CEs associated with this relationship by decreasing visibility, leading to fewer encounters and kills. This is vital to understanding how the environment affects organisms living in this habitat, and how, in turn, organisms affect each other. It also adds to the current data about biodiversity preservation of a relatively unexplored ecosystem.