Does social facilitation affect responses to natural and anthropogenic stressors in the freshwater snail Planorbella trivolvis?

Abstract

Social facilitation is the initiation or increase of a trait, such as stressor tolerance, when in the presence of conspecifics, members of the same species. It has been shown to alter the outcome of toxicity experiments in colonial organisms. We evaluated whether social facilitation would impact responses to stressors in the noncolonial New Mexico ramshorn snail (Planorbella trivolvis) by exposing snails to stressors either singly or in groups of three. Social facilitation did not impact snail responses to malathion but did affect responses to predator cues and temperature stress.