scholarly journals The costs and benefits of flexibility as an expression of behavioural plasticity: a primate perspective

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1618) ◽  
pp. 20120339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carel P. van Schaik
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Geographical Variation ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Behavioural Plasticity ◽  
High Plasticity ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Cognitive Benefits ◽  
Local Genotypes ◽  
Individual Decisions

Traditional neo-Darwinism ascribes geographical variation in morphology or in behaviour to varying selection on local genotypes. However, mobile and long-lived organisms cannot achieve local adaptation this way, leading to a renewed interest in plasticity. I examined geographical variation in orang-utan subsistence and social behaviour, and found this to be largely owing to behavioural plasticity, here called flexibility, both in the form of flexible individual decisions and of socially transmitted (cultural) innovations. Although comparison with other species is difficult, the extent of such flexibility is almost certainly limited by brain size. It is shown that brains can only increase relative to body size where the cognitive benefits they produce are reliably translated into improved survival rate. This means that organisms that are very small, face many predators, live in highly seasonal environments, or lack opportunities for social learning cannot evolve greater flexibility, and must achieve local adaptation through selection on specific genotypes. On the other hand, as body and brain size increase, local adaptation is increasingly achieved through selection on plasticity. The species involved are also generally those that most need it, being more mobile and longer-lived. Although high plasticity buffers against environmental change, the most flexible organisms face a clear limit because they respond slowly to selection. Thus, paradoxically, the largest-brained animals may actually be vulnerable to the more drastic forms of environmental change, such as those induced by human actions.

scholarly journals Mobile Worlds: Choice at the Intersection of Demographic and Environmental Change

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Barnett ◽  
W. Neil Adger
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Size Composition ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Limits To Growth ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Integrate Analysis ◽  
Individual Decisions ◽  
New Research

Research on environmental change has often focused on changes in population as a significant driver of unsustainability and environmental degradation. Demographic pessimism and limited engagement with demographic realities underpin many arguments concerning limits to growth, environmental refugees, and environment-related conflicts. Re-engagement between demographic and environmental sciences has led to greater understanding of the interactions between the size, composition, and distribution of populations and exposure to environmental risks and contributions to environmental burdens. We review the results of this renewed and far more nuanced research frontier, focusing in particular on the way demographic trends affect exposure, sensitivity, and adaptation to environmental change. New research has explained how migration systems interact with environmental challenges in individual decisions and in globally aggregate flows. Here we integrate analysis on demographic and environmental risks that often share a root cause in limited social freedoms and opportunities. We argue for a capabilities approach to promoting sustainable solutions for a more mobile world.

scholarly journals Testing for local adaptation and evolutionary potential along 1 altitudinal gradients in rainforest Drosophila: beyond laboratory estimates

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor K. O’Brien ◽  
Megan Higgie ◽  
Alan Reynolds ◽  
Ary A. Hoffmann ◽  
Jon R. Bridle
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Environmental Variation ◽  
Species Range ◽  
Altitudinal Gradients ◽  
Low Altitude ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTPredicting how species will respond to the rapid climatic changes predicted this century is an urgent task. Species Distribution Models (SDMs) use the current relationship between environmental variation and species’ abundances to predict the effect of future environmental change on their distributions. However, two common assumptions of SDMs are likely to be violated in many cases: (1) that the relationship of environment with abundance or fitness is constant throughout a species’ range and will remain so in future, and (2) that abiotic factors (e.g. temperature, humidity) determine species’ distributions. We test these assumptions by relating field abundance of the rainforest fruit fly Drosophila birchii to ecological change across gradients that include its low and high altitudinal limits. We then test how such ecological variation affects the fitness of 35 D. birchii families transplanted in 591 cages to sites along two altitudinal gradients, to determine whether genetic variation in fitness responses could facilitate future adaptation to environmental change. Overall, field abundance was highest at cooler, high altitude sites, and declined towards warmer, low altitude sites. By contrast, cage fitness (productivity) increased towards warmer, lower altitude sites, suggesting that biotic interactions (absent from cages) drive ecological limits at warmer margins. In addition, the relationship between environmental variation and abundance varied significantly among gradients, indicating divergence in ecological niche across the species’ range. However, there was no evidence for local adaptation within gradients, despite greater productivity of high altitude than low altitude populations when families were reared under laboratory conditions. Families also responded similarly to transplantation along gradients, providing no evidence for fitness trade-offs that would favour local adaptation. These findings highlight the importance of (1) measuring genetic variation of key traits under ecologically relevant conditions, and (2) considering the effect of biotic interactions when predicting species’ responses to environmental change.

scholarly journals Large brains, short life: selection on brain size impacts intrinsic lifespan

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 20190137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Kotrschal ◽  
Alberto Corral-Lopez ◽  
Niclas Kolm
Keyword(s):  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Energetic Cost ◽  
Accelerated Ageing ◽  
Extrinsic Mortality ◽  
Somatic Maintenance ◽  
Cognitive Benefits ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Positive Correlations

The relationship between brain size and ageing is a paradox. The cognitive benefits of large brains should protect from extrinsic mortality and thus indirectly select for slower ageing. However, the substantial energetic cost of neural tissue may also impact the energetic budget of large-brained organisms, causing less investment in somatic maintenance and thereby faster ageing. While the positive association between brain size and survival in the wild is well established, no studies exist on the direct effects of brain size on ageing. Here we test how brain size influences intrinsic ageing in guppy ( Poecilia reticulata ) brain size selection lines with 12% difference in relative brain size. Measuring survival under benign conditions, we find that large-brained animals live 22% shorter than small-brained animals and the effect is similar in both males and females. Our results suggest a trade-off between investment into brain size and somatic maintenance. This implies that the link between brain size and ageing is contingent on the mechanism of mortality, and selection for positive correlations between brain size and ageing should occur mainly under cognition-driven survival benefits from increased brain size. We show that accelerated ageing can be a cost of evolving a larger brain.

The Individual Level: Selection Effects

2020 ◽  
pp. 83-102
Author(s):  
Diane C. Bates
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Sudden Onset ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Individual Decisions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Slow Onset ◽  
Governance Arrangements

This chapter contributes to the explanation to how environmental migrants are ‘selected’ at the individual and small group level. It argues that individual decisions to migrate depend on the type of environmental change. The author distinguishes between sudden onset environmental problems (e.g. natural disasters) and slow onset environmental problems (e.g. climate change). Sudden onsets make push factors more important- They give migrants less power over their decision to migrate, and therefore include more vulnerable population groups. On the contrary, slow onset events create opportunities for individual agency. Governance can play an important role as it can influence migration and environmental change, especially on the local and state level. The author argues that democratic governance arrangements confer agency to individuals and non-democratic governance delimits it. Moreover, the management of sudden onsets in the short run can be more effective in non-democratic governance, while slow onset environmental changes call for democratic governance arrangements.

scholarly journals Costs and benefits of environmental change: tourism industry's responses in Arctic Finland

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaarina Tervo-Kankare ◽  
Eva Kaján ◽  
Jarkko Saarinen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Costs And Benefits

Brain size variation in extremophile fish: local adaptation versus phenotypic plasticity

2014 ◽  
Vol 295 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Eifert ◽  
M. Farnworth ◽  
T. Schulz-Mirbach ◽  
R. Riesch ◽  
D. Bierbach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Size Variation

scholarly journals Reciprocal Garden Study Reveals Acute Spatial-Edaphic Adaptation for Cycas micronesica

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 237
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Marler
Keyword(s):  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Plant Size ◽  
Plant Performance ◽  
Stem Height ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Survival And Growth ◽  
Local Genotypes ◽  
North And South

A long-term reciprocal garden study was used to determine adaptive variation between Cycas micronesica K.D. Hill plants from north versus south Guam. Half-siblings from each location were planted as one-leaf seedlings in north and south gardens and monitored for 15 years. Stem height and diameter, and leaf number and maximum length were measured yearly. Survival and plant size traits were evaluated using a two-way factorial. In both locations, the local genotypes out-performed the foreign genotypes in terms of survival and growth. Survival of the foreign genotypes began to decline by year 4 and was less than 10% by year 15. Survival of the local genotypes was 70% for the north garden and 100% for the south garden. The north site was more hostile to plant performance because overall survival and plant growth were less than for the south site. The most likely environmental factor provoking local adaptation was highly contrasting soil characteristics between north and south Guam. The results indicates that long-term conservation success for C. micronesica and other cycad species must include the concept of local adaptation into decisions for transplantation and restoration projects.

Geographic variation in skin structure in male Andrew’s toad (Bufo andrewsi)

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-174
Author(s):  
Can Wang ◽  
Long Jin ◽  
Zhi Ping Mi ◽  
Wen Bo Liao
Keyword(s):  
Water Absorption ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Water Loss ◽  
Geographical Variation ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Skin Structure ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Bufo Andrewsi ◽  
Loose Layer

Abstract Variation in organ structure likely provides important clues on local adaptation and reflects the pressure target of natural selection. As one of the important organs, the skin plays a key role in adapting to complex environments by reducing water loss or increasing water absorption. Nevertheless, variation in the skin structure across different populations in a single species of anurans remains enigmatic. Here, we studied geographical variation in the skin structure of male Andrew’s toads (Bufo andrewsi) across ten populations using histological methods. We quantified thickness of the skin, the epidermis, the loose layer, the compact layer, and of the epidermis, area of granular glands (GGs) and of ordinary mucous glands (OMGs), width of the calcified layer, and number of capillary vessels. We found that the thickness of the skin, dermis and loose layer in dorsal skin increased with latitude whereas the area of granular glands decreased with altitude. Moreover, the width of the calcified layer in ventral skin decreased with latitude among populations. Our findings suggest that geographical variation in skin structure in male B. andrewsi is likely to reduce water loss or make water absorption occur faster in complex high-latitude environments, improving local adaptation.

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