scholarly journals A natural catastrophic turnover event: individual sociality matters despite community resilience in wild house mice

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1926) ◽  
pp. 20192880
Author(s):  
Julian C. Evans ◽  
Jonas I. Liechti ◽  
Bruce Boatman ◽  
Barbara König
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
House Mice ◽  
Mus Musculus Domesticus ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wild House Mice

Natural disasters can cause rapid demographic changes that disturb the social structure of a population as individuals may lose connections. These changes also have indirect effects as survivors alter their within-group connections or move between groups. As group membership and network position may influence individual fitness, indirect effects may affect how individuals and populations recover from catastrophic events. Here we study changes in the social structure after a large predation event in a population of wild house mice ( Mus musculus domesticus ), when a third of adults were lost. Using social network analysis, we examine how heterogeneity in sociality results in varied responses to losing connections. We then investigate how these differences influence the overall network structure. An individual's reaction to losing associates depended on its sociality prior to the event. Those that were less social before formed more weak connections afterwards, while more social individuals reduced the number of survivors they associated with. Otherwise, the number and size of social groups were highly robust. This indicates that social preferences can drive how individuals adjust their social behaviour after catastrophic turnover events, despite the population's resilience in social structure.

Dynamics of the social structure of the Russian middle class

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-54
Author(s):  
Алексеенок ◽  
Anna Alekseenok ◽  
Гальцова ◽  
Anna Galtsova
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Social Self ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Financial Position ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Analysis Of Dynamics

The article presents a study of the dynamics of the social structure of the Russian middle class. It examines the dynamics of a number of different social groups in Russia in 2003-2014, «blocking» signs for the population which is not a member of the middle class, 2003-2014, self-assessment of the dynamics of 2014 and the possible dynamics for the next year of the financial position in the last year prior the survey in the different groups of the population. Also the analysis of dynamics of value orientations of different population groups, social identity, of the ways and the main types of leisure in the middle class is held. The article compares the model of Russian social structure, built on the basis of social self-assessment of the status of the Russian people in 2014 and 2000.

An uneasy alliance: unequal distribution of affiliative interactions among members of a captive wolf pack

2003 ◽  
Vol 81 (10) ◽  
pp. 1763-1766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Traci Cipponeri ◽  
Paul Verrell
Keyword(s):  
Canis Lupus ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Alpha Male ◽  
Social Disruption ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Gray Wolves ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Play Interactions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Time Of Breeding

The social groups of many vertebrates may be characterized as "uneasy alliances" that reflect tensions between benefits of group membership and costs to individual fitness among members, especially nonrelatives. The prebreeding season may be a time when these tensions become most acute and so observable for packs of gray wolves (Canis lupus). We recorded affiliative (play) interactions among two females and five males of known social ranks in a captive pack as the time of breeding approached. Substantial inequalities among pairs of wolves were apparent in frequencies of both the initiation of play and the exhibition of positive responses by recipient wolves. With the subsequent arrival of the breeding season, the pack experienced social disruption that led to the eviction of the original alpha male and a reordering of the ranks of those wolves remaining. Our data suggest that unequal affiliative interactions among pack members can be associated with (and, perhaps, even be predictive of) subsequent social disruption at a time when opportunities for personal reproduction become most available.

scholarly journals Role of sociality in the response of killer whales to an additive mortality event

2019 ◽  
pp. 201817174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine Busson ◽  
Matthieu Authier ◽  
Christophe Barbraud ◽  
Paul Tixier ◽  
Ryan R. Reisinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Mortality Event ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Fishing Vessels ◽  
Additive Mortality

In highly social top predators, group living is an ecological strategy that enhances individual fitness, primarily through increased foraging success. Additive mortality events across multiple social groups in populations may affect the social structure, and therefore the fitness, of surviving individuals. This hypothesis was examined in a killer whale (Orcinus orca) population that experienced a 7-y period of severe additive mortality due to lethal interactions with illegal fishing vessels. Using both social and demographic analyses conducted on a unique long-term dataset encompassing periods before, during, and after this event, results indicated a decrease in both the number and the mean strength of associations of surviving individuals during the additive mortality period. A positive significant correlation between association strength and apparent survival suggested that the fitness of surviving individuals was impacted by the additive mortality event. After this event, individuals responded to the loss of relatives in their social groups by associating with a greater number of other social groups, likely to maintain a functional group size that maximized their foraging success. However, these associations were loose; individuals did not reassociate in highly stable social groups, and their survival remained low years after the mortality event. These findings demonstrate how the disruption of social structure in killer whales may lead to prolonged negative effects of demographic stress beyond an additive mortality event. More importantly, this study shows that sociality has a key role in the resilience of populations to human-induced mortality; this has major implications for the conservation of highly social and long-lived species.

LAND REGISTRATION AND LOCAL SOCIETY IN QING CHINA: TAXATION AND PROPERTY RIGHTS IN MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY GUANGDONG

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-187
Author(s):  
Kentaro Matsubara
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Tax Collection ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Registration System ◽  
Land Registration ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government

This paper explores the relationship between local lineage social structure and the workings of tax registration in Qing China, through a case study providing documentary evidence of a level of precision that enables us to go beyond the findings of previous scholarship. In the first instance, it reconstructs a tax dispute where implications of the registration system come into play, based on rare records made by the taxpayers themselves. In doing so, it shows that (a) the registered “acreage” of land was in fact unrelated to any actual land whatsoever; (b) tax collection ceased to be able to rely on knowledge of the terrain and had to depend on knowing the social groups that could be held responsible for payment, while the cohesion and internal differentiation of these social groups was (in turn) underpinned by tax collection and registration; and (c) since the registration system did not permit the government to keep track of actual landholding, property rights had to be secured at the local community level. In conclusion, an attempt is made to speculate on the extent to which this specific case contributes to our knowledge of local social structure, the interactions between localities and the government, and the property regime of Qing China overall.

scholarly journals Social Sampling: Children track social choices to reason about status hierarchies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isobel Azani Heck ◽  
Tamar Kushnir ◽  
Katherine Kinzler
Keyword(s):  
Social Preferences ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Selection ◽  
Object Selection ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Common Group ◽  
Unselected Group ◽  
Rare Group ◽  
Selection Of

We tested whether preschool-aged children (N = 280) track an agents’ choices of individuals from novel social groups (i.e., social choices) to infer an agent’s social preferences and the social status of the groups. Across experiments, children saw a box containing two groups (red and blue toy cats). In Experiment 1, children were randomly assigned to Social Selection in which items were described as “friends” or to Object Selection in which items were described as “toys.” Within each selection type, the agent selected five items from either a numerically common group (82% of box; selections appearing random) or a numerically rare group (18% of box; selections violating random sampling). After watching these selections, children were asked who the agent would play with among three individuals: one from the selected group, one from the unselected group, or one from a novel group. Only participants who viewed Social Selection of a numerically rare group predicted that the agent would select an individual from that group in the future. These participants also said an individual from the selected group was the “leader.” Subsequent experiments further probed the Social Selection findings. Children’s reasoning depended on the agent actively selecting the “friends” (Experiment 2) and children thought a member of the rare selected group was the “leader” but not the “helper” (Experiment 3). These results illustrate that children track an agent’s positive social choices to reason about that agent’s social preferences and to infer the status (likelihood of being a “leader”) of novel social groups.

scholarly journals Plasticity in gene expression facilitates invasion of the desert environment in house mice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noëlle K. J. Bittner ◽  
Katya L. Mack ◽  
Michael W. Nachman
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Water Stress ◽  
Blood Chemistry ◽  
Adaptive Plasticity ◽  
House Mice ◽  
Mus Musculus Domesticus ◽  
Desert Environment ◽  
Wild House Mice ◽  
Plastic Responses ◽  
Osmoregulatory Function

AbstractUnderstanding how organisms adapt to new environments is a key problem in evolution, yet it remains unclear whether phenotypic plasticity generally facilitates or hinders this process. Here we studied the evolved and plastic responses to water stress in lab-born descendants of wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) collected from desert and non-desert environments. Using a full sib design, we measured organismal phenotypes and gene expression under normal (hydrated) and water stressed (dehydrated) conditions. After many generations in the lab, mice from the desert consumed significantly less water than mice from other localities, indicating that this difference has a genetic basis. Under water stress, desert mice lost less weight than non-desert mice, and desert mice exhibited differences in blood chemistry related to osmoregulatory function. Gene expression in the kidney revealed evolved differences between mice from different environments as well as plastic responses between hydrated and dehydrated mice. Desert mice showed reduced gene expression plasticity under water stress compared to non-desert mice. Importantly, the non-desert mice generally showed shifts towards desert-like expression under water stress, consistent with adaptive plasticity. Finally, patterns of gene expression identified several candidate genes for adaptation to the desert, including Aqp1 and Apoe. These findings provide evidence for local adaptation in a recently introduced species and suggest that adaptive plasticity may have facilitated the colonization of the desert environment.

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