Multi-scale phenotype-substrate matching: Evidence from shore crabs (Carcinus maenas L.)

Todd, Peter A.; Oh, Joelyn; Loke, Lynette H.L.; Ladle, Richard J.

doi:10.1016/j.ecocom.2012.09.005

Cited by 21 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Second, shore crabs are a common and widely distributed species found in many habitats, potentially requiring different appearances to provide camouflage in each. Consistent with this, crabs from rocky, mudflat, and mussel bed type habitats show differences in both color and pattern (Todd et al, 2006(Todd et al, , 2012Stevens et al, 2014b; Figure 3). However, it is worth noting that despite a number of studies investigating phenotypeenvironment associations that are likely for camouflage (across a range of animal taxa), only one study of sand fleas has tested camouflage directly (e.g., phenotype-environment matching; Stevens et al, 2015).…”

Section: Using Crabs To Study Color Change and Camouflagesupporting

confidence: 51%

Color Change, Phenotypic Plasticity, and Camouflage

Stevens

2016

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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The ability to change appearance over a range of timescales is widespread in nature, existing in many invertebrate and vertebrate groups. This can include color change occurring in seconds, minutes, and hours, to longer term changes associated with phenotypic plasticity and development. A major function is for camouflage against predators because color change and plasticity enables animals to match their surroundings and potentially reduce the risk of predation. Recently, we published findings (Stevens et al., 2014a) showing how shore crabs can change their appearance and better match the background to predator vision in the short term. This, coupled with a number of past studies, emphasizes the potential that animals have to modify their appearance for camouflage. However, the majority of studies on camouflage and color plasticity have focused on a small number of species capable of unusually rapid changes. There are many broad questions that remain about the nature, mechanisms, evolution, and adaptive value of color change and plasticity for concealment. Here, I discuss past work and outline six questions relating to color change and plasticity, as well as major avenues for future work.

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Section: Using Crabs To Study Color Change and Camouflagesupporting

confidence: 51%

Color Change, Phenotypic Plasticity, and Camouflage

Stevens

2016

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…For example, Todd et al . () and Nokelainen et al . () examined associations between crab appearance and substrate/habitat type at a range of spatial scales.…”

Section: Background Choicementioning

confidence: 86%

The key role of behaviour in animal camouflage

2018

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Animal camouflage represents one of the most important ways of preventing (or facilitating) predation. It attracted the attention of the earliest evolutionary biologists, and today remains a focus of investigation in areas ranging from evolutionary ecology, animal decision-making, optimal strategies, visual psychology, computer science, to materials science. Most work focuses on the role of animal morphology per se, and its interactions with the background in affecting detection and recognition. However, the behaviour of organisms is likely to be crucial in affecting camouflage too, through background choice, body orientation and positioning; and strategies of camouflage that require movement. A wealth of potential mechanisms may affect such behaviours, from imprinting and self-assessment to genetics, and operate at several levels (species, morph, and individual). Over many years there have been numerous studies investigating the role of behaviour in camouflage, but to date, no effort to synthesise these studies and ideas into a coherent framework. Here, we review key work on behaviour and camouflage, highlight the mechanisms involved and implications of behaviour, discuss the importance of this in a changing world, and offer suggestions for addressing the many important gaps in our understanding of this subject.

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“…To effectively compare complexity, and gain a more comprehensive understanding of its functional significance in the target ecosystem, it is therefore necessary to fix the scale (or scale range) or to sample from multiple scales (e.g. Todd et al, 2012) (Fig. 4).…”

Section: Scale Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%