scholarly journals Pre-scheduled Colony Size Variation in Dynamic Environments

2017 ◽  
pp. 128-139
Author(s):  
Michalis Mavrovouniotis ◽  
Anastasia Ioannou ◽  
Shengxiang Yang
Keyword(s):  
Colony Size ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Dynamic Environments

scholarly journals The influence of subcolony-scale nesting habitat on the reproductive success of Adélie penguins

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie E. Schmidt ◽  
Grant Ballard ◽  
Amélie Lescroël ◽  
Katie M. Dugger ◽  
Dennis Jongsomjit ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Colony Size ◽  
Nest Predation ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Area Ratio ◽  
Slope Aspect ◽  
Nesting Habitat ◽  
Terrain Attributes ◽  
Small Colony ◽  
Adélie Penguins

AbstractGroup-size variation is common in colonially breeding species, including seabirds, whose breeding colonies can vary in size by several orders of magnitude. Seabirds are some of the most threatened marine taxa and understanding the drivers of colony size variation is more important than ever. Reproductive success is an important demographic parameter that can impact colony size, and it varies in association with a number of factors, including nesting habitat quality. Within colonies, seabirds often aggregate into distinct groups or subcolonies that may vary in quality. We used data from two colonies of Adélie penguins 73 km apart on Ross Island, Antarctica, one large and one small to investigate (1) How subcolony habitat characteristics influence reproductive success and (2) How these relationships differ at a small (Cape Royds) and large (Cape Crozier) colony with different terrain characteristics. Subcolonies were characterized using terrain attributes (elevation, slope aspect, slope steepness, wind shelter, flow accumulation), as well group characteristics (area/size, perimeter-to-area ratio, and proximity to nest predators). Reproductive success was higher and less variable at the larger colony while subcolony characteristics explained more of the variance in reproductive success at the small colony. The most important variable influencing subcolony quality at both colonies was perimeter-to-area ratio, likely reflecting the importance of nest predation by south polar skuas along subcolony edges. The small colony contained a higher proportion of edge nests thus higher potential impact from skua nest predation. Stochastic environmental events may facilitate smaller colonies becoming “trapped” by nest predation: a rapid decline in the number of breeding individuals may increase the proportion of edge nests, leading to higher relative nest predation and hindering population recovery. Several terrain covariates were retained in the final models but which variables, the shapes of the relationships, and importance varied between colonies.

scholarly journals Fluctuating survival selection explains variation in avian group size

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (18) ◽  
pp. 5113-5118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles R. Brown ◽  
Mary Bomberger Brown ◽  
Erin A. Roche ◽  
Valerie A. O’Brien ◽  
Catherine E. Page
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Colony Size ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Directional Selection ◽  
Net Benefit ◽  
First Case ◽  
Survival Selection ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Directional Change

Most animal groups vary extensively in size. Because individuals in certain sizes of groups often have higher apparent fitness than those in other groups, why wide group size variation persists in most populations remains unexplained. We used a 30-y mark–recapture study of colonially breeding cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) to show that the survival advantages of different colony sizes fluctuated among years. Colony size was under both stabilizing and directional selection in different years, and reversals in the sign of directional selection regularly occurred. Directional selection was predicted in part by drought conditions: birds in larger colonies tended to be favored in cooler and wetter years, and birds in smaller colonies in hotter and drier years. Oscillating selection on colony size likely reflected annual differences in food availability and the consequent importance of information transfer, and/or the level of ectoparasitism, with the net benefit of sociality varying under these different conditions. Averaged across years, there was no net directional change in selection on colony size. The wide range in cliff swallow group size is probably maintained by fluctuating survival selection and represents the first case, to our knowledge, in which fitness advantages of different group sizes regularly oscillate over time in a natural vertebrate population.

scholarly journals Hidden patterns of colony size variation in seabirds: a logarithmic point of view

Oikos ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 117 (12) ◽  
pp. 1774-1781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Jovani ◽  
Roddy Mavor ◽  
Daniel Oro
Keyword(s):  
Colony Size ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Hidden Patterns

scholarly journals Correlation between the Spatial Distribution and Colony size Was Common for Monogenetic Bacteria in Laboratory Conditions.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heng Xue ◽  
Masaomi Kurokawa ◽  
Bei-Wen YING
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Colony Size ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Laboratory Conditions ◽  
Structured Population ◽  
Microbial Ecosystems ◽  
Universal Correlation ◽  
Spatial Resources

Abstract Background: Geographically separated population growth of microbes is a common phenomenon in microbial ecology. Colonies are representative of the morphological characteristics of this structured population growth. Pattern formation by single colonies has been intensively studied, whereas the spatial distribution of colonies is poorly investigated. Results: The present study describes a first trial to address the questions of whether and how the spatial distribution of colonies determines the final colony size using the model microorganism Escherichia coli, colonies of which can be grown under well-controlled laboratory conditions. A computational tool for image processing was developed to evaluate colony density, colony size and size variation, and the Voronoi diagram was applied for spatial analysis of colonies with identical space resources. A positive correlation between the final colony size and the Voronoi area was commonly identified, independent of genomic and nutritional differences, which disturbed the colony size and size variation. Conclusions: This novel finding of a universal correlation between the spatial distribution and colony size not only indicated the fair distribution of spatial resources for monogenetic colonies growing with identical space resources but also indicated that the initial localization of the microbial colonies decided by chance determined the fate of the subsequent population growth. This study provides a valuable example for quantitative analysis of the complex microbial ecosystems by means of experimental ecology.

scholarly journals Correlation between the spatial distribution and colony size was common for monogenetic bacteria in laboratory conditions

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heng Xue ◽  
Masaomi Kurokawa ◽  
Bei-Wen Ying
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Colony Size ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Laboratory Conditions ◽  
Structured Population ◽  
Microbial Ecosystems ◽  
Universal Correlation ◽  
Spatial Resources

Abstract Background Geographically separated population growth of microbes is a common phenomenon in microbial ecology. Colonies are representative of the morphological characteristics of this structured population growth. Pattern formation by single colonies has been intensively studied, whereas the spatial distribution of colonies is poorly investigated. Results The present study describes a first trial to address the questions of whether and how the spatial distribution of colonies determines the final colony size using the model microorganism Escherichia coli, colonies of which can be grown under well-controlled laboratory conditions. A computational tool for image processing was developed to evaluate colony density, colony size and size variation, and the Voronoi diagram was applied for spatial analysis of colonies with identical space resources. A positive correlation between the final colony size and the Voronoi area was commonly identified, independent of genomic and nutritional differences, which disturbed the colony size and size variation. Conclusions This novel finding of a universal correlation between the spatial distribution and colony size not only indicated the fair distribution of spatial resources for monogenetic colonies growing with identical space resources but also indicated that the initial localization of the microbial colonies decided by chance determined the fate of the subsequent population growth. This study provides a valuable example for quantitative analysis of the complex microbial ecosystems by means of experimental ecology.

scholarly journals The spatial and metabolic basis of colony size variation

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 669-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy M. Chacón ◽  
Wolfram Möbius ◽  
William R. Harcombe
Keyword(s):  
Colony Size ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Metabolic Basis

scholarly journals The spatial and metabolic basis of colony size variation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Chacón ◽  
Wolfram Möbius ◽  
William Harcombe
Keyword(s):  
Colony Size ◽  
Carbon Sources ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Colony Growth ◽  
Microbial Interactions ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Metabolic Basis ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences ◽  
Genome Scale ◽  
And Diffusion

AbstractSpatial structure impacts microbial growth and interactions, with ecological and evolutionary consequences. It is therefore important to quantitatively understand how spatial proximity affects interactions in different environments. We test how proximity influences colony size when either Escherichia coli or Salmonella enterica are grown on different carbon sources. The importance of colony location changes with species and carbon source. Spatially-explicit, genome-scale metabolic modeling predicts colony size variation, supporting the hypothesis that metabolic mechanisms and diffusion are sufficient to explain the majority of observed variation. Geometrically, individual colony sizes are best predicted by Voronoi diagrams, which identify the territory that is closest to each colony. This means that relative colony growth is largely independent of the distance to colonies beyond those that set territory boundaries. Further, the effect of location increases when colonies take-up resource quickly relative to the diffusion of limiting resources. These analyses made it apparent that the importance of location was smaller than expected for experiments with colonies growing on sugars. The accumulation of toxic byproducts appears to limit the growth of large colonies and reduce variation in colony size. Our work provides an experimentally and theoretically grounded understanding of how location interacts with metabolism and diffusion to influence microbial interactions.

scholarly journals Colony size predicts division of labour in attine ants

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1793) ◽  
pp. 20141411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Ferguson-Gow ◽  
Seirian Sumner ◽  
Andrew F. G. Bourke ◽  
Kate E. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Colony Size ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
Attine Ants ◽  
Reproductive Division Of Labour ◽  
Complexity Hypothesis ◽  
Reproductive Division

Division of labour is central to the ecological success of eusocial insects, yet the evolutionary factors driving increases in complexity in division of labour are little known. The size–complexity hypothesis proposes that, as larger colonies evolve, both non-reproductive and reproductive division of labour become more complex as workers and queens act to maximize inclusive fitness. Using a statistically robust phylogenetic comparative analysis of social and environmental traits of species within the ant tribe Attini, we show that colony size is positively related to both non-reproductive (worker size variation) and reproductive (queen–worker dimorphism) division of labour. The results also suggested that colony size acts on non-reproductive and reproductive division of labour in different ways. Environmental factors, including measures of variation in temperature and precipitation, had no significant effects on any division of labour measure or colony size. Overall, these results support the size–complexity hypothesis for the evolution of social complexity and division of labour in eusocial insects. Determining the evolutionary drivers of colony size may help contribute to our understanding of the evolution of social complexity.

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