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 Individual behavioural traits not social context affects learning about novel objects in archerfish

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick A. R. Jones ◽  
Helen C. Spence-Jones ◽  
Mike Webster ◽  
Luke Rendell
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Behavioural Phenotype ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Animals ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Learning can enable rapid behavioural responses to changing conditions but can depend on the social context and behavioural phenotype of the individual. Learning rates have been linked to consistent individual differences in behavioural traits, especially in situations which require engaging with novelty, but the social environment can also play an important role. The presence of others can modulate the effects of individual behavioural traits and afford access to social information that can reduce the need for ‘risky’ asocial learning. Most studies of social effects on learning are focused on more social species; however, such factors can be important even for less-social animals, including non-grouping or facultatively social species which may still derive benefit from social conditions. Using archerfish, Toxotes chatareus, which exhibit high levels of intra-specific competition and do not show a strong preference for grouping, we explored the effect of social contexts on learning. Individually housed fish were assayed in an ‘open-field’ test and then trained to criterion in a task where fish learnt to shoot a novel cue for a food reward—with a conspecific neighbour visible either during training, outside of training or never (full, partial or no visible presence). Time to learn to shoot the novel cue differed across individuals but not across social context. This suggests that social context does not have a strong effect on learning in this non-obligatory social species; instead, it further highlights the importance that inter-individual variation in behavioural traits can have on learning. Significance statement Some individuals learn faster than others. Many factors can affect an animal’s learning rate—for example, its behavioural phenotype may make it more or less likely to engage with novel objects. The social environment can play a big role too—affecting learning directly and modifying the effects of an individual’s traits. Effects of social context on learning mostly come from highly social species, but recent research has focused on less-social animals. Archerfish display high intra-specific competition, and our study suggests that social context has no strong effect on their learning to shoot novel objects for rewards. Our results may have some relevance for social enrichment and welfare of this increasingly studied species, suggesting there are no negative effects of short- to medium-term isolation of this species—at least with regards to behavioural performance and learning tasks.

scholarly journals Changes in social cohesion in a long-lived species under a perturbation regime

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Genovart ◽  
O. Gimenez ◽  
A. Bertolero ◽  
R. Choquet ◽  
D. Oro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
World Population ◽  
List Type ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Capture Recapture ◽  
A Site

AbstractUnderstanding the behaviour of a population under perturbations is crucial and can help to mitigate the effects of global change. Sociality can influence the dynamics of behavioural processes and plays an important role on populations’ resilience. However little is known about the effects of perturbations on the social cohesion of group-living animals.To explore the strength of social cohesion and its dynamics under perturbations, we studied an ecological system involving a colonial, long-lived species living in a site experiencing a shift to a perturbed regime. This regime, caused by the invasion of predators, led this colony to hold from 70% to only 3% of the total world population in only one decade. Because birds breed aggregated in discrete and annually changing patches within large colonies, we could disentangle whether annual aggregation was random or resulted from social bonding among individuals. Our goals were 1) to uncover if there was any long-term social bonding between individuals and 2) to examine whether the perturbation regime affected social cohesion.We explored social cohesion by means of contingency tables and, within the Social Network Analysis framework, by modeling interdependencies among observations using additive and multiplicative effects (AME) and accounted for missing data. We analysed 25 years of monitoring with an individual capture-recapture database of more than 3,500 individuals.We showed that social bonding occurs over years in this species. We additionally show that social bonding strongly decreased after the perturbation regime. We propose that sociality and individual behavioural heterogeneity have been playing a major role driving dispersal and thus population dynamics over the study period.Perturbations may lead not only to changes in individuals’ behaviours and fitness but also to a change in populations’ social cohesion. The demographic consequences of the breaking down of social bonds are still not well understood, but they can be critical for population dynamics of social species. Further studies considering individual heterogeneity, sociality and different types of perturbations should be carried out to improve our understanding on the resilience of social species.

Reinventing Hierarchy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Group ◽  
The State ◽  
Wealth Accumulation ◽  
Private Land ◽  
The Social ◽  
Initial Settlement ◽  
State Authority ◽  
Land Cultivation ◽  
Over Time

By tracing the development of a single metropolitan banner family from the time of initial settlement to the end of the Qing, this chapter asks how the strategies used by individual families to survive and to expand their wealth shaped the social structure of Shuangcheng. It shows that, over time, some capable metropolitan banner households accumulated large amounts of land through private land cultivation and land sales. Moreover, because they lacked the support of a powerful kinship organization, metropolitan banner families acted collectively to negotiate with the state authority for their benefits. By the end of 1870s, wealth accumulation has transformed metropolitan bannermen from a state-defined population category to a powerful and wealthy social group in Shuangcheng society.

The Use of Urine Marking in the Scavenging Behavior of the Red Fox (Vulpes v uLpes)

Behaviour ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 61 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 82-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. David Henry
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Red Fox ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Red Foxes ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Urine Marking ◽  
The Social ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Solitary Species

AbstractThe eleven different functions for which mammals use urine marking are reviewed in this paper, and the urine marking behavior of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is described in detail. A new hypothesis is advanced that urine marking may serve as a "book keeping system" in the red fox's scavenging behavior. Foxes consistently investigate and urine mark inedible food remnants (e.g., bones, bird wings, and dried out pieces of hide). When a fox re-investigates a marked remnant, the urine mark signals "no food present," and the fox investigates this object for only a brief period of time. This use of urine marking may increase the efficiency of its scavenging behavior, i.e. more food-items found per hour of scavenging. This efficiency may be particularly important during periods of food shortage. The hypothesis is tested in three different experiments, using free-ranging red foxes as subjects. Experiment I establishes that fox do urine mark food remnants. Experiment II shows that foxes investigate for a significantly shorter period of time (P<0.001) food remnants exhibiting both the odor of food and the odor of urine as compared to remnants exhibiting just the odor of food. Experiment III suggests that there a hierarchy of stimuli which determines different responses in the fox's scavenging behavior. The experiments also suggest that there is a degree of social behavior in the scavenging activities of red foxes. Foxes appear to use each other's urine marks to increase the efficiency of their scavenging behavior. Thus this study definitely support LEYHAUSEN'S (1965) statement that the social life of solitary animals is frequently more complex than we realize. Solitary species probably show many ingeniously adapted mechanisms for occupying niches where highly social species could not be maintained. The social evolution and ecological advantages of solitary species deserve to be the focus of future research.

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.

Suicide in London. An Ecological Study: Peter Sainsbury

1992 ◽  
Vol 160 (3) ◽  
pp. 428-430
Author(s):  
Rosalind Ramsay
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Suicide Rate ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Ecological Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Controls ◽  
Over Time

It is almost a hundred years since Durkheim noted that the suicide rate for any country stayed surprisingly constant over time, and differed consistently from that found in other nations. This striking observation led him to argue that a community's suicide rate varied with the extent to which individuals identified with the social group that both controlled and defined their activities. If a group lost cohesion, it could no longer impose such order, and the individual's striving would lack purpose and meaning. So, for example, in times of economic crisis when social controls may be more relaxed, Durkheim predicted an increase in ‘anomic’ suicides.

Aculeate Hymenopteren über Nord- und Ostsee nach Untersuchungen auf Feuerschiffen

1974 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Haeseler
Keyword(s):  
Late Summer ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
West Germany ◽  
North West ◽  
Parasitic Species ◽  
The North ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Solitary Species

Abstract(1) From 1963 to 1967 153 Hymenoptera Aculeata (34 species) wcre captured on lightships of the North Sea and the Baltic, with a clear dominance of social species. (2) The combination of species corresponded neither with the species' inventory of coast biocenoses nor with the depressed profile in the frequency distribution of this group in terrestrial biocenoses of North West Germany in general. (3) In Hymenoptera Aculeata, calm weather or faint winds together with warm air seemed to favour overflights, whereas insolation was of little importance. (4) Whereas the seasonal appearance of the social species at sea corresponded to their population dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems, nearly all the solitary species were registered near termination of their nighttime in North West Germany. (5) Due to the specific behaviour of hibernating ♀♀in late summer, these are no doubt underrepresented in the coloured dish catches. (6) The ♀♀ and ♂♂ of the social and social-parasitic species exhibit migratory behaviour in midsummer or autumn. However, the ♀♀, as well as ♀♀ and ♂♂ of the solitary species, are classified as "vagrants". (7) Even solitary Hymenoptera Aculeata can travel long distances; surprising, since the Aculeata — with exception of social and social-parasitic species — are often denied any considerable spread of distribution intensity.

Social transmission bias and the cultural evolution of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hirshleifer ◽  
Siew Hong Teoh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Economic Attitudes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
Over Time

AbstractEvolved dispositions influence, but do not determine, how people think about economic problems. The evolutionary cognitive approach offers important insights but underweights the social transmission of ideas as a level of explanation. The need for asocialexplanation for the evolution of economic attitudes is evidenced, for example, by immense variations in folk-economic beliefs over time and across individuals.

Domestic Integration and Suicide in the Provinces of Canada

Crisis ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoon A. Leenaars ◽  
David Lester
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Negative Association ◽  
Birth Rates ◽  
Marriage Rates ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
The Social ◽  
Divorce Rates ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Over Time

Canada's rate of suicide varies from province to province. The classical theory of suicide, which attempts to explain the social suicide rate, stems from Durkheim, who argued that low levels of social integration and regulation are associated with high rates of suicide. The present study explored whether social factors (divorce, marriage, and birth rates) do in fact predict suicide rates over time for each province (period studied: 1950-1990). The results showed a positive association between divorce rates and suicide rates, and a negative association between birth rates and suicide rates. Marriage rates showed no consistent association, an anomaly as compared to research from other nations.

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