Chemical alarm responses

Lawrence, J.M., A chemical alarm response in Pycnopodia helianthoides (Echinodermata Asteroidea), Mar. Behav. Physiol., 19, 39, 1991. 

Chemical alarm responses in frog tadpoles Responses of rodents to cat nrine Responses of rats and mice to predatory snake odors Comparison of effects of commercial sqnirrel repellents with fox urine Oil of Citronella as repellent for dogs and cats Camphor as repellent for cats Predator odors as squirrel repellents Natnrally occnrring contraceptive componnds in plants Attractiveness rating of photos of men and women with and withont fragrance present... 

Summey, M. R. and Mathis, A. (1998) Alarm responses to chemical stimuli from damaged con-specific by larval Anurans tests of three Neotropical species. Herpetol. 54, 402-408. 

Even a neutral chemical cue can trigger alarm responses in fish if they had experienced it together with a true alarm signal. A coral-reef dwelling goby, Asterropteryx semipunctatus, learned to associate a novel chemical cue from a... 

Hews, D. K. (1988). Alarm response in larval western toads, Bufo boreas release of chemicals by a natural predator and it s effect on predator capture efficiency. AnimalBehaviour. 36,125-133. 

Mathis, A. and Smith, R.J.F., Intraspecific and cross-superorder responses to chemical alarm signals by brook stickleback, Ecology, 74, 2395, 1993. 

Plants respond to herbivory by producing volatiles that in turn attract carnivorous natural enemies of the herbivores. These volatiles are produced by the plants as a specific response to herbivore damage or mainly as a result of mechanical damage. These so-called HIPVs attract carnivores, which in turn reduce the damage caused by herbivorous arthropods. These chemical alarm calls thus represent an example of induced indirect... 

Although, a non-linear response was not obtained, it was suggested that the proposed scheme could be still used for chemical alarm application where triggering is based on exceeding a specified threshold rate of mass accumulation. 

Ferrari MCO, Messier F, Olivers DP (2008) Variable predation risk and the dynamic nature of mosquito antipredator responses to chemical alarm cues. Chemoecology 17 223-229... 

Hemolymph is the source of alarm cues in P. argus, it causes conspecifics to spend more time inside their shelters and counters the effect of food-related chemical cues (Shabani et al. 2008). Alarm cues are detected by aesthetasc che-moreceptors. Spiny lobsters with ablated aesthetascs do not respond to hemolymph with an alarm response indeed, spiny lobsters without an olfactory sense respond to hemolymph as if it were an appetitive cue and advance towards its source (Shabani et al. 2009). This is due to the fact that hemolymph contains many food-associated compounds that spiny lobsters detect through their non-olfactory antennular che-moreceptors (Steullet et al. 2001, 2002 Schmidt and Mellon, Chap. 7). Interestingly, hemolymph from P. interruptus or blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) did not... 

Hazlett BA, McLay C (2005b) Responses of the crab Heterozius rotundifrons to heterospecific chemical alarm cues phylogeny vs. ecological overlap. J Chem Ecol 31 683-689... 

Mirza RS, Chivers DP (2003) Response of juvenile rainbow trout to varying concentrations of chemical alarm cue response thresholds and survival during encounters with predators. Can J Zool 81 88-95... 

Smith RJF (1989) The response of Asterropteryx semipunctatus and Gnatholepis anjerensis (Pisces, Gobiidae) to chemical stimuli from injured conspecifics, an alarm response in gobies. Ethology 81 279-290... 

It has been known for many decades that odors influence animal behavior, including foraging, predator avoidance, alarm response, social dominance, cohort recognition, and courtship. Darwin (1871) initially proposed chemical signals as a key mechanism in mate choice by which sexual selection is promoted. However, it was not until the discovery of the silkworm moth pheromone bombykol by Butenandt et al. (1959)... 

My goal in this paper is to briefly describe the role of chemical alarm cues in local risk assessment, focusing on threat-sensitive trade-offs. Specifically, I will address the following questions (1) do prey fish show graded responses in overt antipredator responses with decreasing stimulus concentration, (2) are prey fish able to detect chemical alarm cues below their minimum overt behavioural response threshold, and (3) do prey fish exhibit threat-sensitive changes in behaviour in response to alarm cues at concentrations below the minimum overt response threshold ... 

Recent evidence has shown that individuals are able to detect chemical alarm cues well below the overt behavioural response threshold. Fathead minnows were able to acquire the recognition of the chemical cues of a novel predator (yellow perch, Perea flavenscens) if the predator odour was paired with H3NO at concentrations as low as 0.1 nM (25% of the previously demonstrated minimum overt response threshold) (Brown et al., 2001c). Mirza and Chivers (2003) likewise found that juvenile rainbow trout did not exhibit any overt antipredator response (i.e. not different from a distilled water control)... 

Figure 1. A simplified graphical representation of the behavioural response intensity of individual prey as a function of relative chemical alarm cue concentration. Bold line denotes overt antipredator response curve, dashed line denotes covert response curve. Shaded area between overt response threshold (BRTotot) and covert response threshold (BRTcowt) represents concentration range in which we would expect to see threat-sensitive behavioural responses.

Finally, the difference between the overt and covert response thresholds (Figure 1) suggests that there exists a range of concentrations over which individual prey can detect an alarm cue, but do not exhibit an overt antipredator response. Recent studies have begun to examine the role of chemical alarm cues over this low coneentration range. 

EVroENCE FOR THREAT-SENSITIVE BEHAVIOURS IN RESPONSE TO LOW CONCENTRATIONS OF CHEMICAL ALARM CUES... 

There remains the possibility that sub-threshold concentrations of chemical alarm cues may provide information leading to immediate changes in behaviour, even in the absence of an overt antipredator response. These threat-sensitive changes in behaviour may include 1) increased vigilance towards secondary predator cues such as visual information, 2) an increase in risk-aversive foraging tactics and 3) context dependent behavioural shifts in response to conspecific chemical alarm cues. 

Marcus, J. P., and Brown, G. E., in press. Response of pumpkinseed sunfish to conspecific chemical alarm cues an interaction between ontogeny and stimulus concentration. Can. J. Zool. 

THE RESPONSE OF PREY FISHES TO CHEMICAL ALARM CUES WHAT RECENT FIELD EXPERIMENTS REVEAL ABOUT THE OLD... 

Mathis and Smith (1992) pioneered an excellent trap experiment technique for studying the responses of freshwater littoral fishes to chemical alarm cues. Mathis and Smith s experiment, and most of those that followed, used Gee s Improved Miimow Traps, roughly cylindrical wire enclosures (43 cm length x 22 cm diameter) with a funnel located at each end leading into the trap. Cube-shaped artificial cellulose sponges saturated with the experimental treatment were threaded onto stainless steel wire, and... 

PREY FISH RESPONSES TO CHEMICAL ALARM CUES... 

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