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Microplastic exposure increases predictability of predator avoidance strategies in hermit crabs
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Researchers exposed European hermit crabs to microplastics and found the crabs became less cautious and more predictable in their predator-avoidance behavior, reducing their overall variation in response times. This behavioral shift suggests microplastic pollution may make these crabs more vulnerable to predation in the wild.
The contamination of natural systems with plastic debris has become one of the most pressing global environmental issues. Microplastics (MPs) are of particular concern because their ubiquity and small size make them available for ingestion by a range of aquatic biota. MP exposure studies are hence proliferating rapidly but are typically limited to the analyses of population-level responses in toxicity endpoints across treatments. Potential contaminant-induced alterations in behavioural patterns, however, could manifest on numerous levels of variation: at the population-level, between individuals and within individuals. Here, we used repeated measures on startle response durations – a risk-avoidance mechanism – in European hermit crabs, Pagurus bernhardus, to measure behavioural responses to MP exposure across multiple levels of variation. We found that MP exposure led to a significant decrease of startle duration at the population-level as well as a reduction of intra-individual variation. In other words, crabs became less risk averse on average and their behaviour became more predictable with increasing MP concentrations. Collectively, our findings indicate that MP pollution might increase susceptibility to predation in hermit crabs.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.