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Author: Kathleen Church Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 246
Book Description
Structurally complex habitats support high species diversity and promote ecosystem health and stability, however anthropogenic activity is causing natural forms of complexity to rapidly diminish. At the population level, reductions in complexity negatively affect densities of territorial species, as increased visual distance increases the territory size of individuals. Individual behaviour, including aggression, activity and boldness, is also altered by complexity, due to plastic behavioural responses to complexity, habitat selection by particular personality types, or both processes occurring simultaneously. This thesis explores the behavioural effects of habitat complexity in four chapters. The first chapter, a laboratory experiment based on the ideal free distribution, observes how convict cichlids (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) trade-off the higher foraging success obtainable in open habitats with the greater safety provided in complex habitats under overt predation threat. Dominants always preferred the complex habitat, forming ideal despotic distributions, while subordinates altered their habitat use in response to predation. The second chapter also employs the ideal free distribution to assess how convict cichlids within a dominance hierarchy trade-off between food monopolization and safety in the absence of a predator. Dominants again formed ideal despotic distributions in the complex habitat, while dominants with lower energetic states more strongly preferred the complex habitat. For both laboratory experiments, personality did not predict habitat preference. The third chapter, a field study with juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), tested whether stream restorations that increase habitat complexity will also select for particular personality traits, and we again found that complexity did not favour any particular personality types. A broader range perspective regarding the effects of habitat complexity on behaviour was addressed in the fourth chapter via a meta-analysis on a wide range of territorial and non-territorial taxa. Territoriality modified the effects of complexity on behaviour, likely due to the strong reliance of territorial species on visual cues. Taken together, all four chapters demonstrate the high context dependency of the effects of complexity on behaviour. Nevertheless, whether or not an individual is territorial emerged as an important predictor of how habitat complexity is likely to affect its behaviour.
Author: Kathleen Church Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 246
Book Description
Structurally complex habitats support high species diversity and promote ecosystem health and stability, however anthropogenic activity is causing natural forms of complexity to rapidly diminish. At the population level, reductions in complexity negatively affect densities of territorial species, as increased visual distance increases the territory size of individuals. Individual behaviour, including aggression, activity and boldness, is also altered by complexity, due to plastic behavioural responses to complexity, habitat selection by particular personality types, or both processes occurring simultaneously. This thesis explores the behavioural effects of habitat complexity in four chapters. The first chapter, a laboratory experiment based on the ideal free distribution, observes how convict cichlids (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) trade-off the higher foraging success obtainable in open habitats with the greater safety provided in complex habitats under overt predation threat. Dominants always preferred the complex habitat, forming ideal despotic distributions, while subordinates altered their habitat use in response to predation. The second chapter also employs the ideal free distribution to assess how convict cichlids within a dominance hierarchy trade-off between food monopolization and safety in the absence of a predator. Dominants again formed ideal despotic distributions in the complex habitat, while dominants with lower energetic states more strongly preferred the complex habitat. For both laboratory experiments, personality did not predict habitat preference. The third chapter, a field study with juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), tested whether stream restorations that increase habitat complexity will also select for particular personality traits, and we again found that complexity did not favour any particular personality types. A broader range perspective regarding the effects of habitat complexity on behaviour was addressed in the fourth chapter via a meta-analysis on a wide range of territorial and non-territorial taxa. Territoriality modified the effects of complexity on behaviour, likely due to the strong reliance of territorial species on visual cues. Taken together, all four chapters demonstrate the high context dependency of the effects of complexity on behaviour. Nevertheless, whether or not an individual is territorial emerged as an important predictor of how habitat complexity is likely to affect its behaviour.
Author: Claudio Carere Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226922065 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 518
Book Description
Ask anyone who has owned a pet and they’ll assure you that, yes, animals have personalities. And science is beginning to agree. Researchers have demonstrated that both domesticated and nondomesticated animals—from invertebrates to monkeys and apes—behave in consistently different ways, meeting the criteria for what many define as personality. But why the differences, and how are personalities shaped by genes and environment? How did they evolve? The essays in Animal Personalities reveal that there is much to learn from our furred and feathered friends. The study of animal personality is one of the fastest-growing areas of research in behavioral and evolutionary biology. Here Claudio Carere and Dario Maestripieri, along with a host of scholars from fields as diverse as ecology, genetics, endocrinology, neuroscience, and psychology, provide a comprehensive overview of the current research on animal personality. Grouped into thematic sections, chapters approach the topic with empirical and theoretical material and show that to fully understand why personality exists, we must consider the evolutionary processes that give rise to personality, the ecological correlates of personality differences, and the physiological mechanisms underlying personality variation.
Author: Dennis Waters Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1000359565 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 269
Book Description
Behavior and Culture in One Dimension adopts a broad interdisciplinary approach, presenting a unified theory of sequences and their functions and an overview of how they underpin the evolution of complexity. Sequences of DNA guide the functioning of the living world, sequences of speech and writing choreograph the intricacies of human culture, and sequences of code oversee the operation of our literate technological civilization. These linear patterns function under their own rules, which have never been fully explored. It is time for them to get their due. This book explores the one-dimensional sequences that orchestrate the structure and behavior of our three-dimensional habitat. Using Gibsonian concepts of perception, action, and affordances, as well as the works of Howard Pattee, the book examines the role of sequences in the human behavioral and cultural world of speech, writing, and mathematics. The book offers a Darwinian framework for understanding human cultural evolution and locates the two major informational transitions in the origins of life and civilization. It will be of interest to students and researchers in ecological psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, and the social and biological sciences.
Author: Caroline Bilhete Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 37
Book Description
An increase in habitat complexity is thought to decrease visibility and the territory size of visually-oriented animals. Hence, the addition of physical structure has been viewed as a restoration technique, particularly in streams, to increase the density of target species. However, a decrease in territory size may have a negative effect on the fitness of individual organisms. This project is a first attempt to evaluate the effects of habitat structure on the behaviour and growth rate of wild young-of-the-year (YOY) Atlantic salmon. Fish were exposed to one of two habitat treatments in mesh enclosures in Catamaran Brook, New Brunswick: a fine gravel substrate (low complexity) or a fine gravel substrate with boulders added (high complexity). Wild-caught individuals were tagged, weighed and measured before being stocked at densities of ̃1m2 for seven day trials. Fish from high complexity environments exhibited a decrease in foraging rate, frequency of aggression, territory size compared to their counterparts from low complexity environments. Specific growth rate, however, did not differ significantly between treatments. While the addition of structure to a habitat may be beneficial at the population level in terms of an increase in population density, our results suggest that individual fish may pay a cost in terms of a decrease in foraging rate and territory size in these environments. Further research is needed to evaluate the costs and benefits of adding structure to improve the habitat quality for stream salmonids.
Author: S.S. Bell Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 9401130760 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 451
Book Description
We conceived the idea for this book after teaching a graduate seminar on 'Habitat Complexity' at The University of South Florida. Discussions during the seminar led us to conclude that similar goals were to be found in studies of the topic that spanned the breadth of ecological research. Yet, the exact meaning of 'habitat structure', and the way in which it was measured, seemed to differ widely among subdisciplines. Our own research, which involves several sorts of ecology, convinced us that the differences among subdisciplines were indeed real ones, and that they did inhibit communica tion. We decided that interchange of ideas among researchers working in marine ecology, plant-animal interactions, physiological ecology, and other more-or-less independent fields would be worthwhile, in that it might lead to useful generalizations about 'habitat structure'. To foster this interchange of ideas. we organized a symposium to attract researchers working with a wide variety of organisms living in many habitats, but united in their interest in the topic of 'habitat structure'. The symposium was held at The University of South Florida's Chinsegut Hill Conference Center, in May. 1988. We asked participants to think about 'habitat structure' in new ways; to synthesize important, but fragmented, information; and. perhaps. to consider ways of translating ideas across systems. The chapters contained in this book reflect the participants' attempts to do so. The book is divided into four parts, by major themes that we have found useful categorizations.
Author: Cody A. Braun Publisher: ISBN: Category : Crotaphytus collaris Languages : en Pages : 202
Book Description
Territory defense typically involves costly behavioral tactics that may detract from mating opportunities and other fitness enhancing activities. Selection on males therefore is expected to result in their establishing territories and adopting behavior patterns that maximize mating opportunities while simultaneously minimizing costs of spatial defense, which may vary among microhabitat patches that differ in physical parameters such as size, shape, and structural complexity. Using field behavioral studies, I first tested the influence of microhabitat patch structure (simple versus complex) on social and spatial behavior in territorial and non-territorial male eastern collared lizards (Crotaphytus collaris). As a result of markedly different structural conditions in the two microhabitat types, I proposed two alternative sexual selection models to explain factors that may govern male behavior and fitness. Despite the relatively small size and narrow dimensions of simple microhabitats, lizards colonized both simple patches, resulting in high local densities. Nevertheless, some males still defended territories on simple patches, and they did so without initiating contests with rivals or giving broadcast displays more frequently than territorial individuals on complex patches. By contrast, territorial males on simple patches moved throughout their territories more, and also courted a greater number of females more frequently than territorial males on complex patches. Non-territorial males in the two microhabitat types did not differ in any of the social variables measured. Increased visibility owing to the relatively flat and unobstructed surface topography of simple patches appears to promote increased courtship opportunities, while at the same time allowing males to deter same-sex competitors without significantly increasing costly defensive behaviors. Moreover, prioritization of courtship in highly competitive neighborhoods suggests that male behavior is shaped more by opportunities to interact with females than by competition for intrasexual dominant social status, perhaps because proximity to females coupled with simple habitat structure promotes monopolization of female mates. Although sexual selection theory predicts that socially dominant males will sire more offspring than males adopting subordinate social tactics, increased structural complexity of microhabitats may compromise the ability of territory owners to detect non-territorial rivals and prevent them from mating with female residents. To test the hypothesis that the ability of males to monopolize matings with females is negatively related to the structural complexity of microhabitats, I used molecular genetic techniques to quantify reproductive success for territorial and non-territorial males in each microhabitat type. Consistent with this prediction, males defending territories on simple patches sired a greater proportion of the offspring produced by individual mates compared to territorial males on complex patches. Contrary to the expectation that increased mate monopolization by territorial males would decrease mating opportunities for non-territorial males, neither the total number of offspring sired, nor the number of female mates differed as a function of male social status on simple patches, most likely as a result of high local female densities. By contrast, territorial males on complex patches sired more offspring total than their non-territorial rivals, and also tended to mate with more females (but not statistically so). The observation that territorial males on simple microhabitats sired a larger proportion of the offspring produced by their female mates compared to territorial males on complex patches suggests that mate monopolization may be more feasible in microhabitats that are less structurally complex because they afford territory owners high visibility while also limiting undetected movement by non-territorial males. Higher levels of mate monopolization without increased defense costs suggests that territory defense may be more economical in structurally simple microhabitats. Because the simple human-constructed microhabitats at this study site mimic some features of the natural rock outcrops and washes on which the socio-spatial behavior of collared lizards evolved, these results are more similar to what might be expected in populations in natural habitats.
Author: Anne-Sophie Darmaillacq Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1107015561 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 267
Book Description
Focusing on comparative cognition in cephalopods, this book illuminates the wide range of mental function in this often overlooked group.
Author: David M. Shuker Publisher: ISBN: 0199678022 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 355
Book Description
Insects display a staggering diversity of mating and social behaviours. Studying these systems provides insights into a wide range of evolutionary and behavioural questions, such as the evolution of sex, sexual selection, sexual conflict, and parental care. This edited volume provides an authoritative update of the landmark book in the field, The Evolution of Insect Mating Systems (Thornhill and Alcock, 1983), which had such a huge impact in shaping adaptationist approaches to the study of animal behaviour and influencing the study of the evolution of reproductive behaviour far beyond the taxonomic remit of insects. This accessible new volume brings the empirical and conceptual scope of the original book fully up to date, incorporating the wealth of new knowledge and research of the last 30 years. It explores the evolution of complex forms of sex determination in insects, and the role of sexual selection in shaping the evolution of mating systems. Selection arising via male contest competition and female choice (both before and after copulation) are discussed, as are the roles of parasites and pathogens in mediating the strength of sexual selection, and the role that parental care plays in successful reproduction. The Evolution of Insect Mating Systems is suitable for both graduate students and researchers interested in insect mating systems or behaviour from an evolutionary, genetical, physiological, or ecological perspective. Due to its interdisciplinary and concept-driven approach, it will also be of relevance and use to a broad audience of evolutionary biologists.
Author: Roger T. Hanlon Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521897858 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 383
Book Description
A fully updated overview of the causation, function, development and evolution of cephalopod behaviour, richly illustrated in full colour.
Author: Kathleen Church
Author: Kathleen Church
Author: Claudio Carere
Author: Dennis Waters
Author: Caroline Bilhete
Author: S.S. Bell
Author: Cody A. Braun
Author: Anne-Sophie Darmaillacq
Author: David M. Shuker
Author: L. Morris Gosling
Author: Roger T. Hanlon