Eat more, often: The capacity of piscivores to meet increased energy demands in warming oceans

Marine heatwaves (MHWs) profoundly disturb tropical coral reefs, imperilling species fitness and survival. Ectothermic piscivorous reef fishes are particularly vulnerable to MHWs since all aspects of their survival are dictated by ambient temperature. Severe +4 °C MHWs are projected to escalate daily energy demands by ~32-55 %, compelling piscivores to pursue larger or more frequent prey to survive. However, the feasibility of these responses have been questioned, as evolved predation and digestive strategies are constrained to specific prey types and sizes to safeguard residual aerobic scope (AS) during digestion for other vital processes. Instead, prevailing theory proposes appetite reductions at temperatures above optimal, preserving AS at the expense of growth and/or fitness. We investigated this dichotomy in the thermal foraging responses of Arc-eye hawkfish (Paracirrhites arcatus) and blacktail snapper (Lutjanus fulvus), evaluating energetic demand (standard metabolic rate, SMR), AS, appetite (meal mass intake), and capacity for digestion (specific dynamic action, SDA). Spanning a thermal gradient encompassing present-day winter (24.0 ± 0.1 °C), summer (27.5 ± 0.1 °C), and MHW (31.0 ± 0.1 °C), we show that SMR increased by ~65 % from winter to MHW for both species, while AS increased by ~31-67 %. Contrary to predictions of reduced appetite, both species consumed ~106 % larger meals, yielding a ~ 35-105 % greater SDA magnitude. Surprisingly, increased appetite did not encroach on residual AS as both species maintained the physiological flexibility to process larger meals while retaining ~45-60 % of AS at the post-prandial peak. Although larger meals take longer to digest, both species exhibited faster digestion with rising temperatures resulting in a maintained or shortened SDA duration during MHWs, simultaneously enabling increased feeding rates while preserving aerobic reserves to support heightened predation. Our findings underscore the physiological feasibility of increasing appetite for some piscivores, while highlighting the ecological challenge of increasing prey numbers and sizes amid declining prey densities and prey size-reductions caused by ocean warming.