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Adjusting intuitions as to the role of oxygen constraints in shaping the ecology and dynamics of ocean predator–prey systems

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Abstract

A process of serial resolution, each new “resolution” building upon insights drawn from earlier ones, of a set of more or less long-standing intellectual puzzles in fish behavioral biology and fisheries-environmental science is described and interpreted. Information on (1) the highly evolved capture-evasion capabilities of small prey fishes and on (2) size-related disadvantages with respect to oxygen replenishment constraints confronted by larger water-breathing nektonic predators is incorporated within a sequential narrative analysis of seven proffered “Enigmas.” A timescale-dependent tension between predator and prey emerges such that a fleeing smaller prey fish that manages to elude capture long enough to impose sufficient oxygen depletion penalties on its larger, faster swimming pursuer to induce cessation of the assault may ultimately escape to survive the incident; this particular insight may offer essential conceptual footing for underway studies of the vital importance of ambush predation in many ocean ecosystems. Various features of this posited set of “Enigmas” are found easiest to explain by postulating a compelling, perhaps even painful, avoidance signal that may be triggered when a fish’s central nervous system senses a developing internal oxygen storage deficit. Findings suggest that continuing ocean deoxygenation may act over time to decrease the success rate of larger water-breathing predators in capturing and consuming smaller prey. A causal linkage of ocean deoxygenation to historical overfishing is speculatively identified.

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Data availability

No actual data were assembled or analyzed in the course of this study, which used only widely accessible published information, the sources of which are cited in the text and identified in the reference list.

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Acknowledgements

Daniel Pauly provided an extremely useful pre-submission critique.

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  1. Andrew Bakun Ocean Science, 2427 Kuhio Avenue, unit#1004, Honolulu, HI, 96815, USA

    Andrew Bakun

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Bakun, A. Adjusting intuitions as to the role of oxygen constraints in shaping the ecology and dynamics of ocean predator–prey systems. Environ Biol Fish 105, 1287–1299 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-022-01317-6

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