Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of a self-determination theory-based psychoeducational intervention to enhance autonomous motivation for exercise in female university students.

The presence of predators in aquatic habitats is a major factor influencing the populations and communities of prey species in these systems (, , ). Predators can affect prey both numerically through direct consumption and indirectly by inducing behavioral or life-history changes (, , ). In small-volume aquatic habitats, such as ponds or containers, even a few predators can strongly influence the survival of adult prey or their offspring. This is particularly critical for organisms that lack parental care and have limited larval dispersal, where oviposition site selection is a key fitness-enhancing decision (, , , ). For these organisms, the “Preference-Performance Hypothesis” predicts that natural selection favors oviposition behavior that maximizes offspring performance (). Accordingly, gravid females are expected to avoid laying eggs in sites containing larval predators. The ability to detect and avoid predator-containing sites is well documented in amphibians and aquatic insects (, , ). Mosquito larvae have a wide variety of potential predators, including predatory insects (eg larvae, dragonfly nymphs, hydrophilic beetles and backswimmers), crustaceans (eg copepods), and amphibians (eg bufonid and salamander tadpoles), as broadly summarized in several reviews of predator effects on mosquito ecology (, , ). In many of these systems, studies have shown that gravid female mosquitoes can detect larval predators and modify oviposition site selection, accordingly, often avoiding habitats that pose elevated predation risk to their offspring (, , , ). Larvivorous fish are the most efficient predators of mosquito larvae, in comparison to other larvivorous species, and have long been used as biological control agents in a wide range of aquatic habitats (, ). The consumptive effects of larvivorous fish, particularly , have been extensively documented, with numerous studies demonstrating substantial reductions in mosquito larval abundance and, in some cases, adult mosquito populations (, ). In contrast, the non-consumptive (behavioral) effects of larvivorous fish have received considerably less attention. Most studies examining these effects have found that female mosquitoes preferentially avoid ovipositing in water containing larvivorous fish. This predator avoidance behavior has been documented across multiple mosquito genera, including (), (, , ), and (), although the magnitude of the response varies among species. In mosquitoes, eg, oviposition avoidance from (Baird and Girard)-conditioned water has been repeatedly documented and is stronger than responses to other fish such as Green Sunfish (, ) and iridescent tooth carp (), suggesting species-specific predator recognition. Nonetheless, mosquito responses to fish are not universal and may vary according to their typical oviposition habitat. For instance, conducted laboratory choice assays to test how fish exudates affected oviposition by , , and . The 2 species typically oviposit in open-water habitats such as ponds and puddles. Both species clearly avoided ovipositing in fish-conditioned water, whereas the container-breeding mosquito showed no such avoidance. This observation led to the hypothesis that the absence of oviposition avoidance in reflects an adaptive response to settings where encounters with larvivorous fish are not likely (eg small natural or artificial containers). Conversely, other studies have reported negative responses of and to exudates from several fish species (). It is important to note that most studies on this topic evaluated indirect indicators of fish presence (fish exudates). In one study that evaluated direct fish-presence effects (), both and laid significantly more egg rafts in fish-free pools than in adjacent pools containing caged fish, although the avoidance response was considerably stronger in than in . In a second study (), mosquitoes also avoided ovipositing in habitats containing caged fish. The strength of this response varied among fish species, suggesting species-specific predator avoidance. The only study evaluating the effect of live fish on container breeding mosquitoes was done by , who showed, under lab settings, that fish but not significantly reduced the oviposition response of gravid females.