Uncertainty about predation risk: a conceptual review.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc
; 99(1): 238-252, 2024 Feb.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37839808
Uncertainty has long been of interest to economists and psychologists and has more recently gained attention among ecologists. In the ecological world, animals must regularly make decisions related to finding resources and avoiding threats. Here, we describe uncertainty as a perceptual phenomenon of decision-makers, and we focus specifically on the functional ecology of such uncertainty regarding predation risk. Like all uncertainty, uncertainty about predation risk reflects informational limitations. When cues are available, they may be novel (i.e. unknown information), incomplete, unreliable, overly abundant and complex, or conflicting. We review recent studies that have used these informational limitations to induce uncertainty of predation risk. These studies have typically used either over-responses to novelty (i.e. neophobia) or memory attenuation as proxies for measuring uncertainty. Because changes in the environment, particularly unpredictable changes, drive informational limitations, we describe studies assessing unpredictable variance in spatio-temporal predation risk, intensity of predation risk, predator encounter rate, and predator diversity. We also highlight anthropogenic changes within habitats that are likely to have dramatic impacts on information availability and thus uncertainty in antipredator decisions in the modern world.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Conducta Predatoria
/
Ecosistema
Límite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Canadá
Pais de publicación:
Reino Unido