Behavioral plasticity and the valence of indirect interactions

Abstract

Behavioral plasticity in animals influences direct species interactions, but its effects can also spread unpredictably through ecological networks, creating indirect interactions that are difficult to anticipate. We use coarse-grained models to investigate how changes in species behavior shape indirect interactions and influence ecological network dynamics. As an illustrative example, we examine predators that feed on two types of prey, each of which temporarily reduces activity after evading an attack, thereby lowering vulnerability at the expense of growth. We demonstrate that this routine behavior shifts the indirect interaction between prey species from apparent competition to mutualism or parasitism. These shifts occur when predator capture efficiency drops below a critical threshold, causing frequent hunting failures. As a result, one prey species indirectly promotes the growth of the other by relaxing its density dependence through a cascade of network effects, paradoxically increasing predator biomass despite decreased hunting success. Empirical capture probabilities often fall within the range where such dynamics are predicted. We characterize such shifts in the qualitative nature of species interactions as changes in interaction valence, highlighting how routine animal behaviors reshape community structure through cascading changes within ecological networks.