scholarly journals The integrated role of resource memory and scent-mediated territoriality in the emergence of home-ranges

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meryl Theng ◽  
Thomas A. Prowse ◽  
Phill Cassey ◽  
Steven Delean ◽  
Chloe Bracis

Despite decades of extensive animal movement research, we still lack an integrated, process-based understanding behind the movement decisions that individuals make, which ultimately lead to the emergence of home-ranges. Here, we advance toward a more holistic understanding of HR formation, by developing a theoretical model integrating two key processes that have been separately proposed to play important roles in HR formation in territorial animals: (i) optimising resource acquisition by referencing a cognitive memory (i.e., resource memory); and (ii) minimising resource competition through defensive cues (i.e., territoriality). We extend a two-state memory-based model for non-territorial animals to include multiple individuals that interact through scent-mediated conspecific avoidance behaviour. We investigated how the interplay of memory and territoriality influenced: (1) the emergence of individual home-ranges; (2) the relationship between home-range size, density and resource availability; and (3) the response of animal home ranges to perturbations of the conspecific environment (i.e., removing individuals). We showed that integrating both resource memory and territoriality gave rise to spatially distinct and dynamic HRs that follow a negative log-linear relationship with respect to resource distribution (Pearson's r = -0.73, p < 0.01), congruent with empirical evidence. On its own, neither process resulted in a similar response.

2010 ◽  
Vol 88 (11) ◽  
pp. 1052-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pellerin ◽  
C. Calenge ◽  
S. Saïd ◽  
J.- M. Gaillard ◽  
H. Fritz ◽  
...  

In most previous studies of habitat selection, the use of a given habitat type is assumed to be directly proportional to its availability. However, the use and (or) the selection of a given habitat may be conditional on the availability of that habitat. We aim here to (i) identify the environmental variables involved in habitat selection, (ii) identify classes of individuals with similar patterns of habitat selection, and (iii) assess whether habitat use changes with changing availability of habitat types, within monthly home ranges of female western roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus (L., 1758)). We found that some females adjust their habitat use according to the distribution of resources within habitats. Females with similar home ranges in terms of resource quantity and quality showed similar patterns of habitat selection. Differences in habitat use between 2 years with contrasting resource availability showed that temporal changes of environmental conditions influenced the pattern of habitat selection by female roe deer. Habitat selection also differed between periods of the life cycle likely because of contrasted energy requirements. This study shows that the relationship between habitat use by herbivores and habitat availability is nonproportional, and that the availability of resources influences use mostly at intermediate values.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helge Löbler

Purpose Although humans are part of nature, the relationship between humans and nature is not well understood, neither in sustainable marketing nor in relationship marketing. Nature is damaged by humans, and a lot of natural resources coming from nature are taken for granted. The services provided by nature are also often taken for granted. However, humans cannot live without these services, but nature can probably survive without humans, especially man-made (artificial) services. The paper aims to offer a frame that allows aligning marketers and academics’ understanding of service with that of sustainability for sustainable marketing. Design/methodology/approach A literature review of different literature streams, biological, ecological and service literature shows that service is a much broader phenomenon as discussed in the service literature. The paper will show that a fundamental relationship between either humans or humans and nature is service as defined here. Service is understood here as an ongoing process of exchange and change. Service as proposed here is a form of coexistence. Findings Service will be defined as an ongoing process of exchange and change (transfer and transformation) of resources. This understanding integrates human and natural service without connecting it only to human intentions, wishes or needs as causation for service. The process of service as conceptualized here is in line with the understanding of sustainability, as it is discussed nowadays. Aligning marketers’ understanding of service with that of sustainability gives a new frame for sustainable marketing. Research limitations/implications The work may be understood as a step toward a sustainable marketing by framing sustainable processes from a service perspective. The holistic understanding of sustainable marketing offers new chances not only for further research but also for a better (more sustainable) understanding of day-to-day practices. Practical implications If humans understand the fundamental relationship with nature, it can help to act in harmony with nature and not against it to improve sustainable development based on a better understanding of human’s relationship with nature. Social implications Mainstream sustainable marketing is sometimes based on a strong anthropocentrism. This paper balances the role of humans toward nature. Originality/value It is the first paper in relationship marketing looking at the relationship with nature and uses this view to frame this concept of sustainable marketing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tess Renahan ◽  
Ralf J. Sommer

Competition is rampant across kingdoms, arising over potential mates, food resources, and space availability. When faced with opponents, phenotypic plasticity proffers organisms indispensable advantageous strategies to outcompete rivals. This tactic is especially crucial on decaying insect hosts as myriad microbes and numerous nematodes struggle to establish thriving populations and ensure resource availability for future generations. Scarab beetles and their associated nematode symbionts on La Réunion Island have provided exceptional systems to study complicated cross-phylum interactions in soil, and recently we have identified a previously unexplored beetle host, Gymnogaster bupthalma, to be reliably co-infested with diplogastrids Pristionchus mayeri and Acrostichus spp. These nematodes maintain the capacity to plastically respond to environmental conditions by developing disparate mouth forms, a strict bacterial-feeding morph or an omnivorous morph that enables predation on other nematodes. In addition, under stressful settings these worms can enter an arrested development stage called dauer, non-feeding dispersal larvae that resume development into reproducing adults when conditions improve. By investigating this beetle-nematode system in a natural context, we uncovered a novel Pristionchus strategy, wherein dauer dispersal from the carcass is gradual and a reproducing population is sustained. Remarkably, usually preferential-bacterial morph P. mayeri develop as predators in populations dense with competitors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 836-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Schauer ◽  
Andrew Bevan ◽  
Stephen Shennan ◽  
Kevan Edinborough ◽  
Tim Kerig ◽  
...  

AbstractNeolithic stone axeheads from Britain provide an unusually rich, well-provenanced set of evidence with which to consider patterns of prehistoric production and exchange. It is no surprise then that these objects have often been subject to spatial analysis in terms of the relationship between particular stone source areas and the distribution of axeheads made from those stones. At stake in such analysis are important interpretative issues to do with how we view the role of material value, supply, exchange, and demand in prehistoric societies. This paper returns to some of these well-established debates in the light of accumulating British Neolithic evidence and via the greater analytical power and flexibility afforded by recent computational methods. Our analyses make a case that spatial distributions of prehistoric axeheads cannot be explained merely as the result of uneven resource availability in the landscape, but instead reflect the active favouring of particular sources over known alternatives. Above and beyond these patterns, we also demonstrate that more populated parts of Early Neolithic Britain were an increased pull factor affecting the longer-range distribution of these objects.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 516-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco T. T. Lai ◽  
Wikki W. K. Wong ◽  
Joyce L. Y. Kwan

To facilitate effective tobacco control, it is important to identify the socioeconomic strata in which different quitting motives are more strongly associated with cessation. This study aims to examine such a moderating role of socioeconomic background. A total of 2022 past or current daily smoking men from the Hong Kong Thematic Household Survey 2010 who had attempted for cessation were analyzed. Binary socioeconomic indicators, quitting motives, and 1-year abstinence were entered in an exploratory backward-stepwise log-linear model, followed by a binary logistic regression to estimate the probability of one-year abstinence in each socioeconomic stratum. Results suggest that the association between cessation and health motives is stronger in less educated men ( P = .004) and nonmarried men ( P = .003). The estimated probability of cessation ranges from 0.02 (95% CI = 0.00-0.06) to 0.96 (95% CI = 0.89-1.00). Accordingly, policy makers should educate less-educated men and nonmarried men about the adverse health impacts of tobacco use.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 147470491983372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Yang Qu ◽  
Bowen Hou ◽  
Qian Tian

Drawing on life history theory, this research explores the moderating role of childhood economic background in the relationship between sex ratio and the female’s mate preference for male resource availability. Using different priming materials, three experiments consistently found that women with a rich childhood economic background showed a stable level of mate preference for good resource—this applied regardless of male- or female-biased sex ratio. But females with a poor childhood economic background showed a higher level of preference for male resource availability under the condition of female-biased sex ratio (vs. the condition of male-biased sex ratio). These findings support the moderating role of female childhood economic background in the relationship between sex ratio and their mating preference of good resources.


2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1845) ◽  
pp. 20161234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Endre Grüner Ofstad ◽  
Ivar Herfindal ◽  
Erling Johan Solberg ◽  
Bernt-Erik Sæther

The spatial scale of animal space use, e.g. measured as individual home range size, is a key trait with important implications for ecological and evolutionary processes as well as management and conservation of populations and ecosystems. Explaining variation in home range size has therefore received great attention in ecological research. However, few studies have examined multiple hypotheses simultaneously, which is important provided the complex interactions between life history, social system and behaviour. Here, we review previous studies on home range size in ungulates, supplementing with a meta-analysis, to assess how differences in habitat use and species characteristics affect the relationship between body mass and home range size. Habitat type was the main factor explaining interspecific differences in home range size after accounting for species body mass and group size. Species using open habitats had larger home ranges for a given body mass than species using closed habitats, whereas species in open habitats showed a much weaker allometric relationship compared with species living in closed habitats. We found no support for relationships between home range size and species diet or mating system, or any sexual differences. These patterns suggest that the spatial scale of animal movement mainly is a combined effect of body mass, group size and the landscape structure. Accordingly, landscape management must acknowledge the influence of spatial distribution of habitat types on animal behaviour to ensure natural processes affecting demography and viability of ungulate populations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Parr

Abstract This commentary focuses upon the relationship between two themes in the target article: the ways in which a Markov blanket may be defined and the role of precision and salience in mediating the interactions between what is internal and external to a system. These each rest upon the different perspectives we might take while “choosing” a Markov blanket.


Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Joiner ◽  
Melanie A. Hom ◽  
Megan L. Rogers ◽  
Carol Chu ◽  
Ian H. Stanley ◽  
...  

Abstract. Background: Lowered eye blink rate may be a clinically useful indicator of acute, imminent, and severe suicide risk. Diminished eye blink rates are often seen among individuals engaged in heightened concentration on a specific task that requires careful planning and attention. Indeed, overcoming one’s biological instinct for survival through suicide necessitates premeditation and concentration; thus, a diminished eye blink rate may signal imminent suicidality. Aims: This article aims to spur research and clinical inquiry into the role of eye blinks as an indicator of acute suicide risk. Method: Literature relevant to the potential connection between eye blink rate and suicidality was reviewed and synthesized. Results: Anecdotal, cognitive, neurological, and conceptual support for the relationship between decreased blink rate and suicide risk is outlined. Conclusion: Given that eye blinks are a highly observable behavior, the potential clinical utility of using eye blink rate as a marker of suicide risk is immense. Research is warranted to explore the association between eye blink rate and acute suicide risk.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 170-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin N. Stevens ◽  
Joseph R. Bardeen ◽  
Kyle W. Murdock

Parenting behaviors – specifically behaviors characterized by high control, intrusiveness, rejection, and overprotection – and effortful control have each been implicated in the development of anxiety pathology. However, little research has examined the protective role of effortful control in the relation between parenting and anxiety symptoms, specifically among adults. Thus, we sought to explore the unique and interactive effects of parenting and effortful control on anxiety among adults (N = 162). Results suggest that effortful control uniquely contributes to anxiety symptoms above and beyond that of any parenting behavior. Furthermore, effortful control acted as a moderator of the relationship between parental overprotection and anxiety, such that overprotection is associated with anxiety only in individuals with lower levels of effortful control. Implications for potential prevention and intervention efforts which specifically target effortful control are discussed. These findings underscore the importance of considering individual differences in self-regulatory abilities when examining associations between putative early-life risk factors, such as parenting, and anxiety symptoms.


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