Anders Nilsson

Lund University | LU · Department of Biology

Piscivorous fish are important predators in aquatic systems and as such they can have far-reaching effects on ecosystem composition and function. These effects depend on piscivore predation rates and behaviour, and recruitment of young-of-the-year fish into piscivory can hereby govern ecosystem properties. Growth and recruitment can differ between...

Inducible defences allow prey to increase survival chances when predators are present while avoiding unnecessary costs in their absence. Many studies report considerable inter-individual variation in inducible defence expression, yet what underlies this variation is poorly understood. A classic vertebrate example of a predator-induced morphological...

Freshwater mussels in the order Unionida are highly adapted to parasitize fish for the primary purpose of dispersal. The parasitic larval stage affixes itself to the gills or fins of the host where it becomes encysted in the tissue, eventually excysting to develop into a free-living adult. Research on the parasitic interactions between unionids and...

Animal migration is one of the most spectacular and visible behavioural phenomena in nature with profound implications for a range of ecological and evolutionary processes. Successful migration hinges on the ability to exploit temporary resources (e.g. food) and evade threats (e.g. predators) as they arise, and thus the timing of migration is often...

In ecological sciences, animal diets are often simplified to ‘resources' or ‘caloric quantities'. However, in the present study, we investigated the optimal foraging strategy of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua when both macro- and micro-nutritional requirements are accounted for. Proteins cannot be synthesized from fatty acids, so the proteins for gonad...

The loss of longitudinal connectivity in regulated rivers, both up- and downstream, has been detrimental for biodiversity worldwide. While progress has been made regarding upstream fish passage solutions, many questions remain unanswered regarding downstream passage alternatives. To address these knowledge gaps, we used Atlantic salmon (S. salar) s...

The propensity to kill and consume conspecifics (cannibalism) varies greatly between and within species, but the underlying mechanisms behind this variation remain poorly understood. A rich literature has documented that consistent behavioural variation is ubiquitous across the animal kingdom. Such inter-individual behavioural differences, sometime...

Diel vertical migration (DVM) is the most common behavioral phenomenon in zooplankton, and numerous studies have evaluated DVM under strong seasonality at higher latitudes. Yet, our understanding of the environmental drivers of DVM at low latitudes, where seasonal variation is less pronounced, remains limited. Therefore, we here examined patterns o...

The European eel population is critically endangered due to a multitude of human-induced factors such as habitat fragmentation, parasites, fishing, and climate change. In freshwater, downstream migrating silver eels encountering hydroelectric plants often suffer substantial delays and increased mortality from trash-rack impingement and turbine-indu...

Predation risk is often invoked to explain variation in stress responses. Yet, the answers to several key questions remain elusive, including: 1) how predation risk influences the evolution of stress phenotypes, 2) the relative importance of environmental versus genetic factors in stress reactivity, and 3) sexual dimorphism in stress physiology. To...

Predator-inducible defenses constitute a widespread form of adaptive phenotypic plasticity, and such defenses have recently been suggested linked with the neuroen- docrine system. The neuroendocrine system is a target of endocrine disruptors, such as psychoactive pharmaceuticals, which are common aquatic contaminants. We hy- pothesized that exposur...

Predation is a well‐studied driver of ecological selection on prey traits, which frequently drives divergence in anti‐predator performance across environments that vary in predation risk. However, predation also alters prey mortality regimes, where low predation risk often results in higher prey densities and consequently higher intensities of intr...

Dams, weirs, and hydropower facilities are often cited as migratory barriers which impart significant reductions in fitness among migratory fish species. Even where upstream and downstream passage options are available, barrier passage can still often result in energetic or physical costs which compound delays or cause mortality. Past studies have...

This study examines the impact of boldness on foraging competition of the highly invasive round goby Neogobius melanostomus Pallas 1815. Individual risk tolerance, or boldness, was measured as the time to resume movement after a simulated predation strike. Fish that resumed movement faster were categorized as “bold”, fish that took more time to res...

While lake systems in temperate regions have been extensively studied, tropical and subtropical systems have received less attention. Here, we describe the water chemistry and biota of ten inland blue holes on Andros Island, The Bahamas, representative of the morphological, abiotic, and biotic variation among Androsian inland blue holes. The majori...

Different migratory species have evolved distinct migratory characteristics that improve fitness in their particular ecological niches. However, when such species hybridize, migratory traits from parental species can combine maladaptively and cause hybrids to fall between parental fitness peaks, with potential consequences for hybrid viability and...

Most animals are visually oriented, and their eyes provide their “window to the world”. Eye size correlates positively with visual performance, because larger eyes can house larger pupils that increase photon catch and contrast discrimination, particularly under dim light, which have positive effects on behaviours that enhance fitness, including pr...

The European eel Anguilla anguilla Linnaeus 1758 is critically endangered with recruitment estimated at 5%‑10% of historical levels. Enhancing survival of recruits is pivotal for conservation, and restoration should consider habitat choice of elvers ascending river systems. We experimentally show that newly ascended elvers choose small pebble habit...

Patterns of animal migration and the ecological forces that shape them have been studied for centuries. Yet ecological impacts caused by the migration, such as altered predator–prey interactions and effects on community structure, remain poorly understood. This is to a large extent due to the scarcity of naturally replicated migration systems with...

PIT‐tagging is commonly used in behavioural studies of fish, although long‐term evaluations of effects from tagging under natural conditions are scarce. We PIT‐tagged common bream Abramis brama, European perch Perca fluviatilis, pike Esox lucius and roach Rutilus rutilus, released them in their lakes of origin and recaptured them after 103–3269 day...

Most animals constitute potential prey and must respond appropriately to predator-mediated stress in order to survive. Numerous prey also adaptively tailor their response to the prevailing level of risk and stress imposed by their natural enemies, i.e. they adopt an inducible defence strategy. Predator exposure may activate the stress axis, and dri...

To improve the management of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) in freshwater, it is essential to define important lotic habitats. Electrofishing data from 289 wadeable, hard-bottom sites in 69 Swedish coastal rivers and streams, originally surveyed for salmonid monitoring, were used to evaluate the effects of sampling- and habitat-related factor...

Differences between individuals in behavioral type (i.e. animal personality) are ecologically and evolutionarily important because they can have significant effects on fitness components such as growth and predation risk. In the present study we ere used the invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) from an established population in controlled e...

Crustacean copepods in high-latitude lakes frequently alter their pigmentation facultatively to defend themselves against prevailing threats, such as solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and visually oriented predators. Strong seasonality in those environments promotes phenotypic plasticity. To date, no one has investigated whether low-latitude copepo...

Numerous species adopt inducible defence strategies; that is, they have phenotypically plastic traits that decrease the risk of capture and consumption by potential predators. The benefits of expressing alternative phenotypes in high‐ vs. low‐risk environments are well documented. However, inducible anti‐predator traits are also expected to incur c...

• Many diadromous fish populations are declining and at risk of collapse. Lack of river connectivity is a major contributor to these declines, as free migration routes between marine and freshwater habitats are crucial for life‐history completion. For the conservation and ultimately recovery of such species, it is imperative that remedial measures...

Conservation programmes for endangered, long‐lived and migratory species often have to target multiple life stages. The bottlenecks associated with the survival of juvenile anguillid eels migrating into inland waters, the survival and growth of the freshwater life stage, as well as the recruitment and survival of silver eels, migrating back to the...

Management decisions in conservation of threatened species require trading off social needs against biodiversity values, including the prioritization of conservation locations, i.e. where conservation efforts should take place. To improve conservation decisions for the thick-shelled river mussel, Unio crassus, a highly threatened temporary parasite...

Removal of cyprinid fish is a widely used biomanipulation tool to transform turbid shallow eutrophic lakes in north temperate regions into a clear water state. We here evaluate the removal of cyprinids from streams as a supplement to lake fishing. Since cyprinids often aggregate in high densities in lake inlet/outlet streams during winter migration...

• Habitat structural complexity affects the behaviour and physiology of individuals, and responses to the environment can be immediate or influence performance later in life through delayed effects. • Here, we investigated how structural enrichment, both pre‐release in the hatchery rearing environment and post‐release in the wild, influenced winter...

Individual variation in the behavior of prey can influence predation risk in complex ways. We ran individual roach (Rutilus rutilus), a common freshwater fish, through a standard refuge emergence protocol to characterize their boldness, a key animal personality trait. We then paired a bold and a shy roach and exposed the pair to one of two predator...

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10750-017-3217-0 ___ Adaptation to temperature regimes and host presence may enhance fitness in parasites. In an experimental study, we evaluated the timing of glochidia release by Unio crassus subjected to three spring water temperature regimes in the presence and absence of the host fish Cottus gobio. T...

https://www.crcpress.com/Biology-and-Ecology-of-Pike/Skov-Nilsson/p/book/9781482262902 Emphasizes the progress of pike research during the past two decades Highlights human dimension aspects in recreational fisheries Addresses environmental circumstances on pike populations including the pike individuals This book sets out to bridge the order sca...

Studies of predator-mediated selection on behaviour are critical for our understanding of the evolution and maintenance of behavioural diversity in natural populations. Consistent individual differences in prey behaviour, especially in the propensity to take risks (“boldness”), are widespread in the animal kingdom. Theory predicts that individual b...

To improve the situation for the threatened European eel in regulated rivers, better methods need to be developed that more efficiently collect and transport juvenile eels past dams. In this study, a novel mobile, floating eel trap is described, and the results from an evaluation of the trap in two Swedish regulated rivers are presented. The mobile...

Parasite-host interactions can involve strong reciprocal selection pressure, and may lead to locally adapted specializations. The highly threatened unionoid mussels are temporary parasites on fish, but local adaptation has not yet been investigated for many species. Patterns of local adaptation of one of Europe's most threatened unionoids, the thic...

Species integrity can be challenged, and even eroded, if closely related species can hybridize and produce fertile offspring of comparable fitness to that of parental species. The maintenance of newly diverged or closely related species therefore hinges on the establishment and effectiveness of pre-and/or post-zygotic reproductive barriers. Ecologi...

Accelerometer technology was used to evaluate behaviours in the teleost ambush predator pike Esox lucius foraging on crucian carp Carassius carassius. Automated rule-based estimates of prey-size determined handling time were obtained and are compared with video-recorded behaviours. Solutions to tag attachment and the limitations imposed by battery-...

The coexistence of competing species relies on niche partitioning. Competitive exclusion is likely inevitable at high niche overlap, but such divide between competitors may be bridged if environmental circumstances displace competitor niches to enhance partitioning. Foraging-niche dimension can be influenced by environmental characteristics, and if...

Appendix 1. Average values for all the 32 different FA methyl esters extracted from the lipid extracts.

Accumulating research argues that migrants influence the functioning and productivity of local habitats and ecosystems along migration routes and potentially drive cross-system energy fluxes of considerable magnitude, yet empirical documentation of local ecological effects and descriptions of the underlying mechanisms are surprisingly rare. In this...

Psychotropic pharmaceuticals present in the environment may impact organisms both directly and via interaction strengths with other organisms, including predators; therefore, this study examined the potential effects of pharmaceuticals on behavioral responses of fish to avian predators. Wild-caught juvenile perch (Perca fluviatilis) were assayed us...

Recent studies report trends of strongly increasing iron (Fe) concentrations in freshwaters. Since Fe is a key element with a decisive role in the biogeochemical cycling of major elements, it is important to understand the mechanisms behind these trends. We hypothesized that variations in Fe concentration are driven mainly by redox dynamics in hydr...

Fluvial export of organic matter from the terrestrial catchment to the aquatic system is a large and increasing carbon flux. The successful reduction in sulfuric acid deposition since the 1980s has been shown to enhance the mobility of organic matter in the soil, with more terrestrially derived dissolved organic matter (DOM) reaching aquatic system...

Although migratory plasticity is increasingly documented, the ecological drivers of plasticity are not well understood. Predation risk can influence migratory dynamics, but whether seasonal migrants can adjust their migratory behaviour according to perceived risk is unknown. We used electronic tags to record the migration of individual roach (Rutil...

The existence of consistent individual differences in behaviour ('animal personality') has been well documented in recent years. However, how such individual variation in behaviour is maintained over evolutionary time is an ongoing conundrum. A well-studied axis of animal personality is individual variation along a bold-shy continuum, where individ...

Surface ice in rivers and lakes buffers the thermal environment and provides overhead cover, protecting aquatic animals from terrestrial predators. We tested if surface ice influenced the behavior (swimming activity, aggressive encounters, and number of food items eaten) and stress level (coloration of eyes and body) of stream-living brown trout Sa...

1.Migration is a widespread phenomenon, with powerful ecological and evolutionary consequences. Morphological adaptations to reduce the energetic costs associated with migratory transport are commonly documented for migratory species. However few studies have investigated whether variation in body morphology can be explained by variation in migrato...

Environmental change may affect predator-prey interactions in lakes through deterioration of visual conditions affecting foraging success of visually oriented predators. Environmental change in lakes includes an increase in humic matter causing browner water and reduced visibility, affecting the behavioural performance of both piscivores and prey....

Migration is an important event in many animal life histories, but the degree to which individual animals participate in seasonal migrations often varies within populations. The powerful ecological and evolutionary consequences of such partial migration are now well documented, but the underlying mechanisms are still heavily debated. One potential...

Organisms display an impressive array of defence strategies in nature. Inducible defences (changes in morphology and/or behaviour within a prey's lifetime) allow prey to decrease vulnerability to predators and avoid unnecessary costs of expression. Many studies report considerable interindividual variation in the degree to which inducible defences...

This study evaluated a technique to allow the long-term monitoring of individual fishes of known sex in the wild using sex confirmation in close proximity to the reproductive period combined with individual tagging. Hundreds of partially migratory roach Rutilus rutilus were tagged with passive integrated transponders (PIT) following sex determinati...

Predator-prey interaction strengths in variable environments constitute a fundamental link to the understanding of aquatic ecosystem responses to environmental change. The present study investigates the effects of visibility conditions and prey fish density on predation rates of visually oriented piscivorous Eurasian perch Perca fluviatilis L. This...

Predators exert strong regulating forces on lower trophic levels through predation. As most fish are visual foragers, visual conditions in the water may alter the strength of this regulation. We evaluated effects of turbidity and humic water, on foraging efficiency and prey-size selectivity in Northern pike (Esox lucius) feeding on roach (Rutilus r...

Animal migration is an amazing phenomenon that has fascinated humans for long. Many freshwater fishes also show remarkable migrations, whereof the spectacular mass migrations of salmonids from the spawning streams are the most well known and well studied. However, recent studies have shown that migration occurs in a range of freshwater fish taxa fr...

In the present study, we aim at relating Forbes’ remarkable paper on “The lake as a microcosm”, published 125 years ago, to the present status of knowledge in our own research group. Hence, we relate the observations Forbes made to our own microcosm, Lake Krankesjön in southern Sweden, that has been intensively studied by several research groups fo...

Migration has evolved as a strategy to maximise individual fitness in response to seasonally changing ecological and environmental conditions. However, migration can also incur costs, and quantifying these costs can provide important clues to the ultimate ecological forces that underpin migratory behaviour. A key emerging model to explain migration...

Fisheries management traditionally relies on stock assessments assuming discrete populations within large administrational areas. However, failing to account for sub-stock structuring may result in overestimation of the stocks’ true harvest potential and unsustainable exploitation of small stock elements. Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) frequently occu...

During the last decades, fragmentation has become an important issue in ecological research. Habitat fragmentation operates on spatial scales ranging over several magnitudes from patches to landscapes. We focus on small-scale fragmentation effects relevant to animal foraging decision making that could ultimately generate distribution patterns. In a...