Perturbation, Behavioural Feedbacks, and Population Dynamics in Social Animals

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Oro
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Climate Extremes ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Critical Transitions ◽  
Social Animals ◽  
Large Ensembles ◽  
Complex Population

In social animals, perturbations may trigger specific behavioural responses with consequences for dispersal and complex population dynamics. Perturbations raise the need for information gathering in order to reduce uncertainty and increase resilience. Updated information is then shared within the group and social behaviours emerge as a self-organized process. This social information factoralizes with the size of the group, and it is finally used for making crucial decisions about, for instance, when to leave the patch and where to go. Indeed, evolution has favoured philopatry over dispersal, and this trade-off is challenged by perturbations. When perturbations accumulate over time, they may decrease the suitability of the patch and erode the philopatric state until crossing a tipping point, beyond which most individuals decide to disperse to better areas. Initially, the decision to disperse is led by a few individuals, and this decision is copied by the rest of the group in an autocatalytic way. This feedback process of social copying is termed runaway dispersal. Furthermore, social copying enhances the evolution of cultural and technological innovation, which may cause additional nonlinearities for population dynamics. Social information gathering and social copying have also occurred in human evolution, especially after perturbations such as climate extremes and warfare. In summary, social feedback processes cause nonlinear population dynamics including hysteresis and critical transitions (from philopatry to patch collapses and invasions), which emerge from the collective behaviour of large ensembles of individuals.

Conclusions and Prospects

2020 ◽  
pp. 128-132
Author(s):  
Daniel Oro
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Tipping Point ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Animals ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Solitary Species

Throughout the book, I have been searching for empirical examples and theories dealing with how perturbations trigger behavioural feedback responses in social animals, how these responses affect the decision to disperse between patches, and the consequences of dispersal for complex, nonlinear population dynamics. What seems quite clear is that social feedbacks—and especially runaway dispersal by copying—do play an important role in those responses, compared to solitary species. Although philopatry to the patch has many benefits, perturbations may decrease the suitability of this patch. When a patch is perturbed, do social species show different responses than solitary species? Since evolution has selected for maximizing fitness prospects, individuals living either in groups or in solitary will try to avoid the detrimental effects of the perturbation, for instance by leaving the patch. The behavioural mechanisms triggered by perturbations are similar for both social and solitary species: increase of information gathering to reduce uncertainty and the use of this updated information to make optimal decisions about either staying or leaving. Thus, the answer is that solitary and social species show similar responses to perturbations. Nevertheless, the way those behavioural mechanisms operate is rather different between social and solitary species: in the former, information is shared among individuals, and decisions about when to leave the patch and where to go are made not only using private or personal information, but mostly using social information. Last but not least, there is social copying, a trend to copy in a nonrational way what others have decided before. This social copying, also called conformity, may trigger what I termed runaway dispersal: perturbations may accumulate over time, decreasing resilience of the social group until attaining a tipping point. Once this threshold is surpassed, the decision to disperse is led by a few individuals, and this decision is copied by the rest of the group in an autocatalytic way....

Introductory Remarks on Perturbations, Cognition, Dispersal, Sociality, and Nonlinear Population Dynamics

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-32
Author(s):  
Daniel Oro
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Tipping Point ◽  
Transient Phenomena ◽  
Critical Transitions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Animals ◽  
Autocatalytic Process

This chapter defines the different terms and processes that are the main themes of the book. This chapter starts by explaining how perturbations increase uncertainty, which pushes individuals to update and gather information. In social animals, this information is shared through the social network, which is used to make a decision about staying or leaving the patch. Finally, this decision is not going to be made individually but rather based on decisions made by others. Perturbations may accumulate until surpassing a tipping point; then the first individuals may start to disperse and the rest copies this behaviour, which cascade as long as more individuals disperse. This autocatalytic process is termed runaway dispersal, which may result in nonlinear population dynamics, such as hysteresis, critical transitions, and transient phenomena. These dynamics should occur at the local level (e.g. patch collapse) and metapopulation level (e.g. extinction–colonization turnover).

scholarly journals Complex Population Dynamics in Mussels Arising from Density-Linked Stochasticity

PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. e75700 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Timothy Wootton ◽  
James D. Forester
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Complex Population

scholarly journals Old wild wolves: ancient DNA survey unveils population dynamics in Late Pleistocene and Holocene Italian remains

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Maria Ciucani ◽  
Davide Palumbo ◽  
Marco Galaverni ◽  
Patrizia Serventi ◽  
Elena Fabbri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Genetic Variability ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Hypervariable Region ◽  
Chronological Period ◽  
Complex Population ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Mitochondrial Clade ◽  
The Last Glacial

Background The contemporary Italian wolf (Canis lupus italicus) represents a case of morphological and genetic uniqueness. Today, Italian wolves are also the only documented population to fall exclusively within the mitochondrial haplogroup 2, which was the most diffused across Eurasian and North American wolves during the Late Pleistocene. However, the dynamics leading to such distinctiveness are still debated. Methods In order to shed light on the ancient genetic variability of this wolf population and on the origin of its current diversity, we collected 19 Late Pleistocene-Holocene samples from northern Italy, which we analyzed at a short portion of the hypervariable region 1 of the mitochondrial DNA, highly informative for wolf and dog phylogenetic analyses. Results Four out of the six detected haplotypes matched the ones found in ancient wolves from northern Europe and Beringia, or in modern European and Chinese wolves, and appeared closely related to the two haplotypes currently found in Italian wolves. The haplotype of two Late Pleistocene samples matched with primitive and contemporary dog sequences from the canine mitochondrial clade A. All these haplotypes belonged to haplogroup 2. The only exception was a Holocene sample dated 3,250 years ago, affiliated to haplogroup 1. Discussion In this study we describe the genetic variability of the most ancient wolf specimens from Italy analyzed so far, providing a preliminary overview of the genetic make-up of the population that inhabited this area from the last glacial maximum to the Middle Age period. Our results endorsed that the genetic diversity carried by the Pleistocene wolves here analyzed showed a strong continuity with other northern Eurasian wolf specimens from the same chronological period. Contrarily, the Holocene samples showed a greater similarity only with modern sequences from Europe and Asia, and the occurrence of an haplogroup 1 haplotype allowed to date back previous finding about its presence in this area. Moreover, the unexpected discovery of a 24,700-year-old sample carrying a haplotype that, from the fragment here obtained, falls within the canine clade A, could represent the oldest evidence in Europe of such dog-rich clade. All these findings suggest complex population dynamics that deserve to be further investigated based on mitochondrial or whole genome sequencing.

Personal Opacity and Social Information Gathering

1989 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHARLES R. BERGER ◽  
KATHY KELLERMANN
Keyword(s):  
Social Information ◽  
Information Gathering
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