scholarly journals Population differences in aggression are shaped by cyclone-induced selection

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander G. Little ◽  
David N. Fisher ◽  
Thomas W. Schoener ◽  
Jonathan N. Pruitt
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Black Swan ◽  
Population Differences ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

AbstractSurprisingly little is known about the evolutionary impacts of rare but extreme black swan events, like tropical cyclones. By intercepting three cyclones in fall 2018, we evaluated cyclone-induced selection on collective behavior in a group-living spider. We further examined whether historic frequencies of cyclone landfalls are correlated with geographic variation in group behavior. Cyclones consistently selected for more aggressive spider societies. Furthermore, sites where cyclones have historically been more common also harbor more aggressive groups. Thus, two corroborative lines of evidence convey that that cyclone-induced selection can drive the evolution of colony behavior, and suggest that extreme black swan events can shape within-species diversity and local adaptation.One Sentence SummaryTropical cyclones drive the evolution of more aggressive spider societies.

scholarly journals Discrete modes of social information processing predict individual behavior of fish in a group

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (38) ◽  
pp. 10149-10154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Harpaz ◽  
Gašper Tkačik ◽  
Elad Schneidman
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Single Mode ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Individual Behavior ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Adult Zebrafish ◽  
Passive Mode

Individual computations and social interactions underlying collective behavior in groups of animals are of great ethological, behavioral, and theoretical interest. While complex individual behaviors have successfully been parsed into small dictionaries of stereotyped behavioral modes, studies of collective behavior largely ignored these findings; instead, their focus was on inferring single, mode-independent social interaction rules that reproduced macroscopic and often qualitative features of group behavior. Here, we bring these two approaches together to predict individual swimming patterns of adult zebrafish in a group. We show that fish alternate between an “active” mode, in which they are sensitive to the swimming patterns of conspecifics, and a “passive” mode, where they ignore them. Using a model that accounts for these two modes explicitly, we predict behaviors of individual fish with high accuracy, outperforming previous approaches that assumed a single continuous computation by individuals and simple metric or topological weighing of neighbors’ behavior. At the group level, switching between active and passive modes is uncorrelated among fish, but correlated directional swimming behavior still emerges. Our quantitative approach for studying complex, multimodal individual behavior jointly with emergent group behavior is readily extensible to additional behavioral modes and their neural correlates as well as to other species.

Unveiling species diversity in collared frogs through morphological and bioacoustic evidence: a new Mannophryne (Amphibia, Aromobatidae) from Sierra de Aroa, northwestern Venezuela, and an amended definition and call description of M. herminae (Boettger, 1893)

Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4461 (4) ◽  
pp. 451 ◽  
Author(s):  
FERNANDO J.M. ROJAS-RUNJAIC ◽  
MIGUEL E. MATTA-PEREIRA ◽  
ENRIQUE LA MARCA
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Color Pattern ◽  
Advertisement Call ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Unique Combination ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
A New Species ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

Species diversity in collared frogs of the genus Mannophryne is presumed to be underestimated due to the paucity of external morphology characters, but combining morphology with bioacoustics and other lines of evidence has shown to be useful in delimiting species of this group. Herein we describe a new species of Mannophryne from Sierra de Aroa in northwestern Venezuela. The new species is morphologically similar to M. herminae but is readily recognized by its strikingly different advertisement call. It also can be distinguished from all its congeners by the unique combination of its small body size, general color pattern, basal toe webbing, and advertisement call consisting of long trills of single tonal notes emitted at a rate of 2–3 notes/s. Additionally, to facilitate future diagnosis of undescribed species related to M. herminae, we amend the definition of the latter, describe in detail its advertisement call, and redefine its known distribution range. The new species increases the number of described species of Mannophryne to 20. 

scholarly journals Fine-scale geographic variation in photosynthetic-related traits ofPicea glaucaseedlings indicates local adaptation to climate

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 864-878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lahcen Benomar ◽  
Mohammed S. Lamhamedi ◽  
Isabelle Villeneuve ◽  
André Rainville ◽  
Jean Beaulieu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Fine Scale

scholarly journals Conformity in the collective: differences in hunger affect individual and group behavior in a shoaling fish

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 968-974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander D M Wilson ◽  
Alicia L J Burns ◽  
Emanuele Crosato ◽  
Joseph Lizier ◽  
Mikhail Prokopenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Collective Motion ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Fundamental Interest ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Nearest Neighbor Distances

Abstract Animal groups are often composed of individuals that vary according to behavioral, morphological, and internal state parameters. Understanding the importance of such individual-level heterogeneity to the establishment and maintenance of coherent group responses is of fundamental interest in collective behavior. We examined the influence of hunger on the individual and collective behavior of groups of shoaling fish, x-ray tetras (Pristella maxillaris). Fish were assigned to one of two nutritional states, satiated or hungry, and then allocated to 5 treatments that represented different ratios of satiated to hungry individuals (8 hungry, 8 satiated, 4:4 hungry:satiated, 2:6 hungry:satiated, 6:2 hungry:satiated). Our data show that groups with a greater proportion of hungry fish swam faster and exhibited greater nearest neighbor distances. Within groups, however, there was no difference in the swimming speeds of hungry versus well-fed fish, suggesting that group members conform and adapt their swimming speed according to the overall composition of the group. We also found significant differences in mean group transfer entropy, suggesting stronger patterns of information flow in groups comprising all, or a majority of, hungry individuals. In contrast, we did not observe differences in polarization, a measure of group alignment, within groups across treatments. Taken together these results demonstrate that the nutritional state of animals within social groups impacts both individual and group behavior, and that members of heterogenous groups can adapt their behavior to facilitate coherent collective motion.

scholarly journals Hierarchical Approach for Comparing Collective Behavior Across Scales: Cellular Systems to Honey Bee Colonies

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob D. Davidson ◽  
Medhavi Vishwakarma ◽  
Michael L. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Group Structure ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Cellular Systems ◽  
Hierarchical Approach ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Group Function ◽  
Bee Colonies ◽  
Compare And Contrast

How individuals in a group lead to collective behavior is a fundamental question across biological systems, from cellular systems, to animal groups, to human organizations. Recent technological advancements have enabled an unprecedented increase in our ability to collect, quantify, and analyze how individual responses lead to group behavior. However, despite a wealth of data demonstrating that collective behavior exists across biological scales, it is difficult to make general statements that apply in different systems. In this perspective, we present a cohesive framework for comparing groups across different levels of biological organization, using an intermediate link of “collective mechanisms” that connects individual responses to group behavior. Using this approach we demonstrate that an effective way of comparing different groups is with an analysis hierarchy that asks complementary questions, including how individuals in a group implement various collective mechanisms, and how these various mechanisms are used to achieve group function. We apply this framework to compare two collective systems—cellular systems and honey bee colonies. Using a case study of a response to a disturbance, we compare and contrast collective mechanisms used in each system. We then discuss how inherent differences in group structure and physical constraints lead to different combinations of collective mechanisms to solve a particular problem. Together, we demonstrate how a hierarchical approach can be used to compare and contrast different systems, lead to new hypotheses in each system, and form a basis for common research questions in collective behavior.

Modeling the Rapid Transmission of Information Within a Social Group of Insects: Emergent Patterns in the Antipredator Signals

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Borduin ◽  
Karthik Ramaswamy ◽  
Ashwin Mohan ◽  
Rex Cocroft ◽  
Satish S. Nair
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Group Behavior ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Predator Attack ◽  
Behavioral Rules ◽  
Umbonia Crassicornis ◽  
Transmission Of Information ◽  
Rapid Transmission ◽  
Available Information

The study of group behavior in animals emerging from social interactions among individuals using agent based models has gained momentum in recent years. Although most of the individuals in a group of the treehopper Umbonia crassicornis do not have information about where the predator is, the signaling behavior of the group yields an emergent pattern that provides the defending adult with information about predator presence and location. Offspring signal synchronously to warn a defending parent of a predator attack. We develop a computational model of rapid signaler-receiver interactions in this group-living insect. We test the emergence of informative global patterns by providing interacting juvenile nymphs with limited locally available information with this agent based model. Known parameters such as size of the aggregation and spatial distribution are estimated from experimental recordings. Further, the model investigates the behavioral rules underlying group signaling patterns that reveal the predator’s location. We also show how variation in these behavioral rules can bring about variation in group signals, demonstrating the potential for natural selection to shape these rules.

scholarly journals Geographic Variation in the Organization of Song Sparrow Repertoires

The Auk ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 936-942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Peters ◽  
William A. Searcy ◽  
Michael D. Beecher ◽  
Stephen Nowicki
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Song Type ◽  
Population Differences ◽  
Repertoire Size ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Geographic Differences ◽  
Song Types ◽  
Mean Similarity ◽  
Song Repertoires

Abstract We asked whether geographic variation exists in the complexity of song repertoires in Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) by quantitatively comparing four measures of repertoire organization across four geographically distant populations: (1) repertoire size (the number of distinct song types), (2) the number of “minimal units of production” per repertoire, (3) mean similarity among variants of the same song type (“within-type” similarity), and (4) mean similarity among song types in a repertoire (“between-type” similarity). We found significant geographic differences among populations in three of these four measures, with mean similarity among song types being the exception. In general, relatively sedentary populations in North Carolina and Washington were more similar to each other than to migratory populations in Pennsylvania and Maine. Contrary to our expectation based on prior interspecific analyses of variation in repertoire complexity, the relatively sedentary populations in our sample had more complex repertoires than did the more migratory populations. The origin and functional significance of population differences in repertoire complexity in this species remain uncertain.

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