scholarly journals Can context changes improve behavioral flexibility? Towards a better understanding of species adaptability to environmental changes

2019 ◽  
pp. 100019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurelie Coulon
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Species Adaptability

scholarly journals Life on the edge: diet preferences reflect adaptation to drought in Neotoma fuscipes

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan J Barrett ◽  
Arielle Crews ◽  
Mary Brooke McElreath
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Food Preferences ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Generalist Herbivores ◽  
Edge Habitat ◽  
Neotoma Fuscipes ◽  
Dietary Flexibility ◽  
Drought Tolerant ◽  
Diet Preferences

ABSTRACTEcological change due to habitat fragmentation and climate change can decrease population viability, especially in herbivores and the plant communities upon which they depend. Behavioral flexibility is one important adaptation to both patchy or edge habitats undergoing rapid environmental change. This is true in many generalist herbivores, whose diet preferences can vary substantially, both geographically and over time. Little is known about what plants allow generalist herbivores to respond to rapid environmental changes, and whether these responses are due to variability in diet preference in a population, or individual dietary flexibility. We investigated how the diet preferences of dusky-footed woodrats (Neotoma fuscipes) might allow them to respond to drought in a spatially heterogeneous environment. We conducted cafeteria trials on woodrats during a year of extreme drought to assess individual preferences for locally available plants compared to more drought-tolerant edge vegetation. Our results show that woodrats sample a number of plants, but tend to prefer scrub oak, a dominant plant species in the available habitat, as well as chamise- a highly drought-tolerant plant predominantly present in the surrounding edge habitat. No difference in food preferences was detected between sexes, but we found evidence for an effect based on age and proximity to edge habitat. Juveniles who lived closer to the habitat edge were more likely to consume, and consumed greater amounts of plants in cafeteria trials compared to adults and juveniles living further from the edge. In addition to oak and chamise, adults sampled large quantities of other plants such as poison oak and California buckeye, and in general included a wider array of plants in their preferred diets compared to juveniles. We conclude with a discussion of the management implications and outlook for woodrats in the Coast Range of northern California.

scholarly journals Similar foraging energetics of two sympatric albatrosses despite contrasting life histories and wind-mediated foraging strategies

2020 ◽  
Vol 223 (23) ◽  
pp. jeb228585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin E. Kroeger ◽  
Daniel E. Crocker ◽  
Rachael A. Orben ◽  
David R. Thompson ◽  
Leigh G. Torres ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Mass Gain ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Wind Speeds ◽  
Ocean Environment

ABSTRACTUnderstanding the environmental and behavioral factors that influence how organisms maintain energy balance can inform us about their potential resiliency to rapid environmental changes. Flexibility in maintaining energy balance is particularly important to long-lived, central-place foraging seabirds that are constrained when locating food for offspring in a dynamic ocean environment. To understand the role of environmental interactions, behavioral flexibility and morphological constraints on energy balance, we used doubly labeled water to measure the at-sea daily energy expenditure (DEE) of two sympatrically breeding seabirds, Campbell (Thalassarche impavida) and grey-headed (Thalassarchechrysostoma) albatrosses. We found that species and sexes had similar foraging costs, but DEE varied between years for both species and sexes during early chick rearing in two consecutive seasons. For both species, greater DEE was positively associated with larger proportional mass gain, lower mean wind speeds during water take-offs, greater proportions of strong tailwinds (>12 m s−1), and younger chick age. Greater proportional mass gains were marginally more costly in male albatrosses that already have higher wing loading. DEE was higher during flights with a greater proportion of strong headwinds for grey-headed albatrosses only. Poleward winds are forecasted to intensify over the next century, which may increase DEE for grey-headed albatrosses that heavily use this region during early chick rearing. Female Campbell albatrosses may be negatively affected by forecasted slackening winds at lower latitudes due to an expected greater reliance on less energy efficient sit-and-wait foraging strategies. Behavioral plasticity associated with environmental variation may influence future population responses to climate change of both species.

scholarly journals Urban birdsongs: higher minimum song frequency of an urban colonist persists in a common garden experiment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dustin G. Reichard ◽  
Jonathan W. Atwell ◽  
Meelyn M. Pandit ◽  
Gonçalo C. Cardoso ◽  
Trevor D. Price ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Common Garden ◽  
Frequency Noise ◽  
Population Difference ◽  
Common Garden Experiment ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
The Common ◽  
Song Frequency

AbstractEnvironmental changes caused by urbanization and noise pollution can have profound effects on acoustic communication. Many organisms use higher sound frequencies in urban environments with low-frequency noise, but the developmental and evolutionary mechanisms underlying these shifts are less clear. We used a common garden experiment to ask whether changes in minimum song frequency observed 30 years after a songbird colonized an urban environment are a consequence of behavioral flexibility or canalized changes that occur early in development. We captured male juvenile dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis thurberi) from two recently diverged populations (urban and mountain) soon after they reached independence (aged 25-40 days), raised them in identical indoor aviaries, and studied their songs at an age of three years. We found that the large population difference in minimum frequency observed in the field persisted undiminished in the common garden despite the absence of noise. We also found some song sharing between the common garden and natal field populations, indicating that early song memorization before capture could contribute to the persistent song differences in adulthood. These results are the first to show that frequency shifts in urban birdsong are maintained in the absence of noise by genetic evolution and/or early life experiences.

scholarly journals Plasticity of the glutamate transporter EAAT2 on striatal astrocytes regulates flexibility in behavior

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjen J. Boender ◽  
Raffaella Tonini
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Glutamate Transporter ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Action Control ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Lateral Part ◽  
Instrumental Task ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractModulation of striatal circuits is necessary for behavioral flexibility and confers the ability to adapt to environmental changes. Striatal astrocytes contribute to circuit neuromodulation by controlling the activity of ambient neurotransmitters. In particular, extracellular glutamate levels are tightly controlled by the astrocytic glutamate transporter EAAT2, thereby influencing synaptic functioning and neural network activity. While disturbances in EAAT2 have been related to neurological dysfunctions, it remains unclear if environmental cues influence this protein’s function to specifically shape action control.In this study, we investigate the relationship between experience-dependent plasticity of EAAT2 expression and action inflexibility that follows overtraining for an instrumental task. We find that task overtraining is associated with the upregulation of EAAT2 in the lateral part of the dorsal striatum (DLS). Interfering with EAAT2 upregulation by chemogenetic activation of astrocytic Gq signaling or by transient in vivo knockdown of EAAT2 in the DLS restores behavioral flexibility. Astrocytes are emerging as critical regulators of striatal functions, and by demonstrating that plasticity of EAAT2 expression in the DLS shapes behavior, this work provides novel mechanistic insights into how flexibility in action control is regulated.

Linking transcription, RNA polymerase II elongation and alternative splicing

2020 ◽  
Vol 477 (16) ◽  
pp. 3091-3104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciana E. Giono ◽  
Alberto R. Kornblihtt
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Alternative Splicing ◽  
Rna Polymerase Ii ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Transcription Elongation ◽  
Single Gene ◽  
Regulation Of Gene Expression ◽  
Regulation Of Transcription ◽  
Stepping Stones ◽  
Eukaryotic Transcription

Gene expression is an intricately regulated process that is at the basis of cell differentiation, the maintenance of cell identity and the cellular responses to environmental changes. Alternative splicing, the process by which multiple functionally distinct transcripts are generated from a single gene, is one of the main mechanisms that contribute to expand the coding capacity of genomes and help explain the level of complexity achieved by higher organisms. Eukaryotic transcription is subject to multiple layers of regulation both intrinsic — such as promoter structure — and dynamic, allowing the cell to respond to internal and external signals. Similarly, alternative splicing choices are affected by all of these aspects, mainly through the regulation of transcription elongation, making it a regulatory knob on a par with the regulation of gene expression levels. This review aims to recapitulate some of the history and stepping-stones that led to the paradigms held today about transcription and splicing regulation, with major focus on transcription elongation and its effect on alternative splicing.

Seeking to uncover biology's chemical roots

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 435-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Addy Pross
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Significant Development ◽  
The Road ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Systems Chemistry ◽  
Biological World ◽  
Inanimate Matter ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Opening Up

Despite the considerable advances in molecular biology over the past several decades, the nature of the physical–chemical process by which inanimate matter become transformed into simplest life remains elusive. In this review, we describe recent advances in a relatively new area of chemistry, systems chemistry, which attempts to uncover the physical–chemical principles underlying that remarkable transformation. A significant development has been the discovery that within the space of chemical potentiality there exists a largely unexplored kinetic domain which could be termed dynamic kinetic chemistry. Our analysis suggests that all biological systems and associated sub-systems belong to this distinct domain, thereby facilitating the placement of biological systems within a coherent physical/chemical framework. That discovery offers new insights into the origin of life process, as well as opening the door toward the preparation of active materials able to self-heal, adapt to environmental changes, even communicate, mimicking what transpires routinely in the biological world. The road to simplest proto-life appears to be opening up.

FIT – Do Something Different

2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben (C) Fletcher ◽  
Jill Hanson ◽  
Nadine Page ◽  
Karen Pine
Keyword(s):  
Weight Loss ◽  
Longitudinal Studies ◽  
Behavioral Intervention ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Calorie Intake ◽  
Life Skill ◽  
Behavioral Repertoire ◽  
Additional Weight

Two 3-month longitudinal studies examined weight loss following a 1-month behavioral intervention (FIT-DSD) focusing on increasing participants’ behavioral flexibility and breaking daily habits. The goal was to break the distal habits hypothesized as playing a role in unhealthy dietary and activity behaviors. The FIT-DSD intervention required participants to do something different each day and to engage in novel weekly activities to expand their behavioral repertoire. These activities were not food- or exercise-related. In Study 1, the FIT-DSD program was compared with a control condition where participants engaged in daily tasks not expected to influence behavioral flexibility. Study 2 used an active or quasicontrol group in which half the participants were also on food diets. Measures in both studies were taken pre-, post-, and post-postintervention. In Study 1, FIT-DSD participants showed greater weight loss that continued post-postintervention. In Study 2, all participants on the FIT-DSD program lost weight, weight loss continued post-postintervention, and participants who were also dieting lost no additional weight. A dose relationship was observed between increases in behavioral flexibility scores and weight loss, and this relationship was mediated by calorie intake. Corresponding reductions in BMI were also present. Increasing behavioral flexibility may be an effective approach for tackling obesity and also provides affective and potential life-skill benefits.

The Contributions of the Prelimbic Area to Behavioral Flexibility

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Ragozzino ◽  
Jenna Kim ◽  
Derrick Hasstert ◽  
Nancy Minniti ◽  
Charlene Kiang
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Flexibility

Kecakapan Behavioral Dalam Proses Pembelajaran PAI Melalui Komunikasi Interpersonal

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-42
Author(s):  
Latifah Latifah ◽  
Ngalimun Ngalimun ◽  
Muhammad Andi Setiawan ◽  
Makmur Haji Harun
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Communication Anxiety ◽  
Social Style ◽  
Interaction Management

Penelitian ini membuat gambaran secara sistematis tentang bagaimana Kecakapan Behavioral dalam proses pembelajaran PAI melalui komunikasi interpersonal di Madrasah Ibtidaiyah AssalamMartapura. Penelitian ini memfokuskan pada kecakapan behavioral yang artinya kecakapan pada tingkat perilaku. Kecakapan ini membantu seseorang untuk melaksanakan perilaku yang membawa seseorang mencapai tujuan dalam komunikasi dengan orang lain. Kecakapan behavioral ini meliputi: 1) Keterlibatan interaktif (interactive involvement). Kecakapan ini menentukan tingkat keikutsertaan dan partisipasi seseorang dalam komunikasi dengan orang lain. Kecakapan ini meliputi, sikap tanggap (responsiveness), sikap perseptif (perceptiveness) dan sikap penuh perhatian (attentiveness). 2) Manajemen interaksi (interaction management). Kecakapan itu membantu seseorang mampu mengambil tindakan-tindakan yang berguna bagi seseorang untuk mencapai tujuan komunikasi. 3) Keluwesan perilaku (behavioral flexibility). Kecakapan ini membantu seseorang untuk melaksanakan berbagai kemungkinan perilaku yang dapat diambil untuk mencapai tujuan komunikasi. 4) Mendengarkan (listening). Kecakapan ini membantu seseorang untuk dapat mendengarkan orang yang berkomunikasi dengan seseorang tidak hanya isi, tetapi juga perasaan, keprihatinan, dan kekhawatiran yang menyertainya. 5) Gaya sosial (social style). Kecakapan ini membantu seseorang dapat berperilaku menarik, khas, dan dapat diterima oleh orang yang berkomunikasi dengan seseorang tersebut. 6) Kecemasan komunikasi (communication anxiety). Dengan kecakapan ini seseorang dapat mengatasi rasa takut, bingung, dan kacau pikiran, tubuh gemetar, dan rasa demam panggung yang muncul dalam komunikasi dengan orang lain.

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