scholarly journals Females facilitate male patch discovery in a wild fish population

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lysanne Snijders ◽  
Ralf H. J. M. Kurvers ◽  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Alan N. Tump ◽  
Indar W. Ramnarine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Fish Population ◽  
Sex Composition ◽  
Novel Food ◽  
Adaptive Value ◽  
The Social ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Socially Responsive ◽  
Social Association

AbstractWhen individuals are more socially responsive to one sex than the other, the benefits they get from foraging socially are likely to depend on the sex composition of the social environment. We tested this hypothesis by performing experimental manipulations of guppy, Poecilia reticulata, sex compositions in the wild. Males found fewer novel food patches in the absence of females than in mixed-sex compositions, while female patch discovery did not differ between compositions. We argue that these results were driven by sex-dependent mechanisms of social association: Markov chain-based fission-fusion modeling revealed that males reduced sociality when females were absent, while less social individuals found fewer patches. Females were similarly social with or without males. Finally, males, but not females, preferred to join females over males at patches. Our findings reveal the relevance of considering how individual and population-level traits interact in shaping the adaptive value of social living in the wild.

scholarly journals Individual- and population-level drivers of consistent foraging success across environments

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lysanne Snijders ◽  
Ralf H. J. M. Kurvers ◽  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Indar W. Ramnarine ◽  
Jens Krause
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
The Individual

AbstractIndividual foraging is under strong natural selection. Yet, whether individuals differ consistently in their foraging success across environments, and which individual and population-level traits might drive such differences, is largely unknown. We addressed this question in a field experiment, conducting over 1,100 foraging trials with nine subpopulations of guppies, Poecilia reticulata, translocating them across environments in the wild. A-priori, we determined the individual social phenotypes. We show that individuals consistently differed in reaching food, but not control, patches across environments. Social individuals reached more food patches than less social ones and males reached more food patches than females. Overall, individuals were, however, more likely to join females at patches than males, which explains why individuals in subpopulations with relatively more females reached, on average, more food patches. Our results provide rare evidence for individual differences in foraging success across environments, driven by individual and population level (sex ratio) traits.

scholarly journals Causal evidence for the adaptive benefits of social foraging in the wild

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lysanne Snijders ◽  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Alan N. Tump ◽  
Michael Breuker ◽  
Chente Ortiz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Social Benefit ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Social Foraging ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
The Social ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
To Come

Sociality is a fundamental organizing principle across taxa, thought to come with a suite of adaptive benefits. However, making causal inferences about these adaptive benefits requires experimental manipulation of the social environment, which is rarely feasible in the field. Here we manipulated the number of conspecifics in Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) in the wild, and quantified how this affected a key benefit of sociality, social foraging, by investigating several components of foraging success. As adaptive benefits of social foraging may differ between sexes, we studied males and females separately, expecting females, the more social and risk-averse sex, to benefit more from conspecifics than males. Conducting over 1,600 foraging trials, we found that in both sexes, increasing the number of conspecifics led to faster detection of novel food patches and a higher probability of feeding following detection of the patch, resulting in greater individual resource consumption. The slope of the latter relationship differed between the sexes, with males unexpectedly exhibiting a stronger social benefit. Our study provides rare causal evidence for the adaptive benefits of social foraging in the wild, and highlights that sex differences in sociality do not necessarily imply an unequal ability to profit from the presence of others.

scholarly journals Causal evidence for the adaptive benefits of social foraging in the wild

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lysanne Snijders ◽  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Alan N. Tump ◽  
Michael Breuker ◽  
Chente Ortiz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Social Benefit ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Social Foraging ◽  
Foraging Success ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
The Social ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
To Come

AbstractSociality is a fundamental organizing principle across taxa, thought to come with a suite of adaptive benefits. However, making causal inferences about these adaptive benefits requires experimental manipulation of the social environment, which is rarely feasible in the field. Here we manipulated the number of conspecifics in Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) in the wild, and quantified how this affected a key benefit of sociality, social foraging, by investigating several components of foraging success. As adaptive benefits of social foraging may differ between sexes, we studied males and females separately, expecting females, the more social and risk-averse sex in guppies, to benefit more from conspecifics. Conducting over 1600 foraging trials, we found that in both sexes, increasing the number of conspecifics led to faster detection of novel food patches and a higher probability of feeding following detection of the patch, resulting in greater individual resource consumption. The extent of the latter relationship differed between the sexes, with males unexpectedly exhibiting a stronger social benefit. Our study provides rare causal evidence for the adaptive benefits of social foraging in the wild, and highlights that sex differences in sociality do not necessarily imply an unequal ability to profit from the presence of others.

scholarly journals Mutability of demographic noise in microbial range expansions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
QinQin Yu ◽  
Matti Gralka ◽  
Marie-Cécilia Duvernoy ◽  
Megan Sousa ◽  
Arbel Harpak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Deletion ◽  
Genetic Manipulation ◽  
Single Gene ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Growth Conditions ◽  
Establishment Probability ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Demographic Noise ◽  
Single Gene Deletion

AbstractDemographic noise, the change in the composition of a population due to random birth and death events, is an important driving force in evolution because it reduces the efficacy of natural selection. Demographic noise is typically thought to be set by the population size and the environment, but recent experiments with microbial range expansions have revealed substantial strain-level differences in demographic noise under the same growth conditions. Many genetic and phenotypic differences exist between strains; to what extent do single mutations change the strength of demographic noise? To investigate this question, we developed a high-throughput method for measuring demographic noise in colonies without the need for genetic manipulation. By applying this method to 191 randomly-selected single gene deletion strains from the E. coli Keio collection, we find that a typical single gene deletion mutation decreases demographic noise by 8% (maximal decrease: 81%). We find that the strength of demographic noise is an emergent trait at the population level that can be predicted by colony-level traits but not cell-level traits. The observed differences in demographic noise from single gene deletions can increase the establishment probability of beneficial mutations by almost an order of magnitude (compared to in the wild type). Our results show that single mutations can substantially alter adaptation through their effects on demographic noise and suggest that demographic noise can be an evolvable trait of a population.

scholarly journals Levelling up: Global examples of reducing health inequalities

2021 ◽  
pp. 140349482110224
Author(s):  
Clare Bambra
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Health Care Access ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
State Expansion ◽  
Care Access ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1950S

There are significant inequalities in health by socio-economic status, race/ethnicity, gender, neighbourhood deprivation and other axes of social inequality. Reducing these health inequalities and improving health equity is arguably the ‘holy grail’ of public health. This article engages with this quest by presenting and analysing historical examples of when sizeable population-level reductions in health inequalities have been achieved. Five global examples are presented ranging from the 1950s to the 2000s: the Nordic social democratic welfare states from the 1950s to the 1970s; the Civil Rights Acts and War on Poverty in 1960s USA; democratisation in Brazil in the 1980s; German reunification in the 1990s; and the English health inequalities strategy in the 2000s. Welfare state expansion, improved health care access, and enhanced political incorporation are identified as three commonly held ‘levellers’ whereby health inequalities can be reduced – at scale. The article concludes by arguing that ‘levelling up’ population health through reducing health inequalities requires the long-term enactment of macro-level policies that aggressively target the social determinants of health.

scholarly journals Phenotypic plasticity of labile traits in the wild

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon E. Brommer
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Statistical Approach ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Quantitative Genetic ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Quantitative Genetic Parameters

Abstract Individual-based studies allow quantification of phenotypic plasticity in behavioural, life-history and other labile traits. The study of phenotypic plasticity in the wild can shed new light on the ultimate objectives (1) whether plasticity itself can evolve or is constrained by its genetic architecture, and (2) whether plasticity is associated to other traits, including fitness (selection). I describe the main statistical approach for how repeated records of individuals and a description of the environment (E) allow quantification of variation in plasticity across individuals (IxE) and genotypes (GxE) in wild populations. Based on a literature review of life-history and behavioural studies on plasticity in the wild, I discuss the present state of the two objectives listed above. Few studies have quantified GxE of labile traits in wild populations, and it is likely that power to detect statistically significant GxE is lacking. Apart from the issue of whether it is heritable, plasticity tends to correlate with average trait expression (not fully supported by the few genetic estimates available) and may thus be evolutionary constrained in this way. Individual-specific estimates of plasticity tend to be related to other traits of the individual (including fitness), but these analyses may be anti-conservative because they predominantly concern stats-on-stats. Despite the increased interest in plasticity in wild populations, the putative lack of power to detect GxE in such populations hinders achieving general insights. I discuss possible steps to invigorate the field by moving away from simply testing for presence of GxE to analyses that ‘scale up’ to population level processes and by the development of new behavioural theory to identify quantitative genetic parameters which can be estimated.

scholarly journals Clypeal patterning in the paper wasp Polistes dominulus: no evidence of adaptive value in the wild

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Green ◽  
Ellouise Leadbeater ◽  
Jonathan M. Carruthers ◽  
Neil S. Rosser ◽  
Eric R. Lucas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Paper Wasp ◽  
Polistes Dominulus ◽  
Adaptive Value ◽  
In The Wild

scholarly journals Measuring social networks in primates: wearable sensors versus direct observations

2020 ◽  
Vol 476 (2236) ◽  
pp. 20190737
Author(s):  
Valeria Gelardi ◽  
Jeanne Godard ◽  
Dany Paleressompoulle ◽  
Nicolas Claidiere ◽  
Alain Barrat
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Collection Method ◽  
Data Collection Method ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Data Yield

Network analysis represents a valuable and flexible framework to understand the structure of individual interactions at the population level in animal societies. The versatility of network representations is moreover suited to different types of datasets describing these interactions. However, depending on the data collection method, different pictures of the social bonds between individuals could a priori emerge. Understanding how the data collection method influences the description of the social structure of a group is thus essential to assess the reliability of social studies based on different types of data. This is however rarely feasible, especially for animal groups, where data collection is often challenging. Here, we address this issue by comparing datasets of interactions between primates collected through two different methods: behavioural observations and wearable proximity sensors. We show that, although many directly observed interactions are not detected by the sensors, the global pictures obtained when aggregating the data to build interaction networks turn out to be remarkably similar. Moreover, sensor data yield a reliable social network over short time scales and can be used for long-term studies, showing their important potential for detailed studies of the evolution of animal social groups.

scholarly journals National or population level interventions addressing the social determinants of mental health – an umbrella review

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neha Shah ◽  
Ian F. Walker ◽  
Yannish Naik ◽  
Selina Rajan ◽  
Kate O’Hagan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Mental Health Outcomes ◽  
Umbrella Review ◽  
The Social ◽  
Quality Evidence

Abstract Background Social circumstances in which people live and work impact the population’s mental health. We aimed to synthesise evidence identifying effective interventions and policies that influence the social determinants of mental health at national or scaled population level. We searched five databases (Cochrane Library, Global Health, MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO) between Jan 1st 2000 and July 23rd 2019 to identify systematic reviews of population-level interventions or policies addressing a recognised social determinant of mental health and collected mental health outcomes. There were no restrictions on country, sub-population or age. A narrative overview of results is provided. Quality assessment was conducted using Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR 2). This study was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42019140198). Results We identified 20 reviews for inclusion. Most reviews were of low or critically low quality. Primary studies were mostly observational and from higher income settings. Higher quality evidence indicates more generous welfare benefits may reduce socioeconomic inequalities in mental health outcomes. Lower quality evidence suggests unemployment insurance, warm housing interventions, neighbourhood renewal, paid parental leave, gender equality policies, community-based parenting programmes, and less restrictive migration policies are associated with improved mental health outcomes. Low quality evidence suggests restriction of access to lethal means and multi-component suicide prevention programmes are associated with reduced suicide risk. Conclusion This umbrella review has identified a small and overall low-quality evidence base for population level interventions addressing the social determinants of mental health. There are significant gaps in the evidence base for key policy areas, which limit ability of national policymakers to understand how to effectively improve population mental health.

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