Question

Marine Biology Question- what are "Nonconsumptive predator effects (or, more generally, non-consumptive effect, NCE)"?

Answer 1

Predators have nonconsumptive effects (NCEs) on the behavior of prey. NCEs affect the qualitative and quantitative nature of species interactions and food webs. These responses can incur costs in fitness correlates such as growth and survival of the prey. They are nonconsumptive effects (NCEs) of predators. These responses lead to indirect effects transmitted from beginning to end of prey to other species in the food web. NCEs demonstrate in a wide range of communities and across diverse taxa. NCEs can qualitatively modify the nature of species interactions. For example, predator‐induced changes in prey traits can reverse competitive interactions and lead to increases in prey growth rates due to strong TMIEs on prey resources. NCEs can contribute the net effect of predators on prey and net indirect effect of the predator on species, whose interacts with prey. Therefore, they affect prey population growth rates, community structure and ecosystem processes. These effects contribute significantly to the influence of predators, which include competition, trophic cascades and keystone predation. Hence, they play a critical role in the dynamics and structure of ecological communities.