Environment‐driven plasticity in foraging behaviour: From individual‐level processes to community‐level consequences

1. Plasticity describes the ability of a genotype to adaptively produce different phenotypes in response to environmental cues. Even though the concept of phenotypic plasticity was originally conceived for morphological characters, environmentally cued modification of behaviour has been recognized as an immediate and potentially highly reversible form of phenotypic plasticity.

2. In this perspective, we focus on plasticity in foraging behaviour, as it directly relates to energy acquisition and is crucial for individual fitness. Using the foraging sequence framework, we summarize theories and empirical evidence of foraging plasticity in the following foraging steps: search, detect, decide, pursue, subdue and ingest. For each step, we review the mechanisms (how) and limitations (to what extent) by which individual foragers can modify key behaviours, and we highlight important environmental cues or information that foragers may rely on.

3. We follow the literature review by focussing on the nature of environmental cues for behavioural plasticity and associated levels of uncertainty across the steps of the foraging sequence. We note that relevant environmental information is often more difficult to gather and more unpredictable during earlier steps. We then discuss how foraging plasticity can directly shape the spatiotemporal distribution of species, determine the form of functional responses and impose frequency-dependent selection. These effects can then impact food-web characteristics and evolutionary dynamics at the community level.

4. Finally, we offer three main forward-looking perspectives. First, we advocate a holistic approach that integrates information from all relevant steps of a foraging sequence when investigating and understanding foraging plasticity and its ramifications. Second, we emphasize the importance of considering the feedback loop between evolutionary dynamics and food-web characteristics in the evolution of communities. Third, we highlight the incorporation of behavioural plasticity from the viewpoint of prey or resource as the other half of the story that merits further exploration.

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Figure 1. A diagram summarizing environment-driven plasticity in the six foraging steps and their consequences. Open square(s) below each step represent a behaviour that can be modified. Bullet points under each behaviour are important environmental factors or cues for behavioural modifications. Thinner arrows denote the direct effects of plasticity in each step on spatiotemporal distribution, functional response, and frequency dependence of selection, which then translate to metacommunity/food-web structure and evolutionary dynamics. The double arrow connecting food-web structure and evolutionary dynamics signifies the feedback loop between the two.

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Published in Functional Ecology, June 2025

Authors: Hsi-Cheng Ho & Chi-Yun Kuo

Full text: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.70084