How does a pesticide pulse increase vulnerability to predation? Combined effects on behavioral antipredator traits and escape swimming

An increasing number of studies have documented that sublethal pesticide exposure can change predator–prey interactions. Most of these studies have focused on effects of long-term pesticide exposure on only one type of antipredator traits and have not directly linked changes in these traits to mortality by predation. To get a better mechanistic understanding of how short-term pesticide pulses make prey organisms more vulnerable to predation, we studied effects of 24 h exposure to a sublethal concentration of the insecticide endosulfan and the herbicide Roundup on the major antipredator traits and the resulting mortality by predation in larvae of the damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum. A pulse of both pesticides affected antipredator traits involved in avoiding detection by predators as well as traits involved in escape after detection. After a pesticide pulse, larvae increased activity levels and even further increased the number of walks when predation risk was present. Further, an endosulfan pulse tended to reduce escape swimming speed. In contrast, previous exposure to Roundup caused the larvae to swim faster, yet less often when attacked. Importantly, although both studied pesticides induced maladaptive changes in overall activity, only for endosulfan this resulted in an increased mortality by predation. Our study highlights that considering changed predator–prey interactions may improve ecological risk evaluations of short pesticide pulses, yet also underscores the need (1) to consider effects on all important antipredator traits of the prey as trait compensation may occur and (2) to effectively score the outcome of predator–prey interactions in staged encounters.

► A short endosulfan and Roundup pulse disrupted activity-related antipredator traits.
► Yet, only endosulfan increased mortality by predation due to compensatory mechanisms.
► Indeed, escape speed increased after a Roundup pulse but not after an endosulfan pulse.
► Ignoring such mechanisms may overestimate pesticide-induced increases in predation.