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Changes in the habitat use of prey induced by high densities of predators generally result in a reduction of prey foraging efficiency. The shift in habitat use between high-risk and reduced-risk environments within the range of potential prey habitats (the aptly named landscape of fear ) has been observed in many ecological settings. One of the primary mechanisms used by prey as a response to higher levels of predation threat is modifying their patterns of habitat use, moving toward areas with lower per-capita predation risk. These ecological effects are often a result of behaviors driven by the perception of predation risk by the prey that can vary spatially and temporally. Moreover, non-lethal effects (trait mediated) can also occur, which include modification of behavior (e.g., shifts in feeding and shelter habitats) and traits such as growth rate, fitness, spawning and recruitment success. Predators can have a direct effect on prey (density mediated) by increasing their mortality rate and consequently reducing population size. These areas are regulated in many cases by piscivorous fish that exert top-down control over intermediate and lower trophic levels.
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Examples of predators driving fish community structure are perhaps best known from tropical and sub-tropical reefs. Higher trophic level predators can have profound effects on the structure of both terrestrial and marine communities. The combination of tools and approaches used in this study provided valuable sources of information that support the inferences of predation risk-driven habitat selection of prey in this sub-tropical reef system. Crepuscular periods were confirmed to be the most active phases in terms of predator-prey interactions and consequently the most variable. Prey and predator species exhibited complex spatial dynamics and behavior over diel periods, with prey modifying patterns of habitat use and spatial distribution, likely as a response of their interactions with predators. The results indicate that predator and prey distribution patterns changed considerably throughout the day. Changes in co-location and habitat preferences of predators and prey over time throughout the diel cycle were investigated using species distribution models (MAXENT) based on habitat predictors and by means of spatial statistics. We investigated behavioral changes of predators and prey fish in sub-tropical “live-bottom” (sandstone) reefs at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS), located 20 nautical miles off the coast of Georgia, USA, using fisheries acoustic methods in association with visual census and direct observation using SCUBA. A better understanding of the dynamics of these patterns and processes would allow us to manage and monitor fish communities in these productive and vulnerable areas more efficiently. However, other factors such as habitat complexity and species-specific behavior may alter these patterns, increasing variability in species interactions. These processes usually follow specific diel patterns in reef areas with higher rates of these interactions occurring during the crepuscular periods. The dynamics of fish communities at tropical and sub-tropical rocky reefs are influenced in many cases by predation activity and predator-prey interactions.