A mechanistic theory of personality‐dependent movement behaviour based on dynamic energy budgets

Abstract

Consistent between‐individual differences in movement are widely recognised across taxa. In addition, foraging plasticity at the within‐individual level suggests a behavioural dependency on the internal energy demand. Because behaviour co‐varies with fast‐slow life history (LH) strategies in an adaptive context, as theoretically predicted by the pace‐of‐life syndrome hypothesis, mass/energy fluxes should link behaviour and its plasticity with physiology at both between‐ and within‐individual levels. However, a mechanistic framework driving these links in a fluctuating ecological context is lacking. Focusing on home range behaviour, we propose a novel behavioural‐bioenergetics theoretical model to address such complexities at the individual level based on energy balance. We propose explicit mechanistic links between behaviour, physiology/metabolism and LH by merging two well‐founded theories, the movement ecology paradigm and the dynamic energetic budget theory. Overall, our behavioural‐bioenergetics model integrates the mechanisms explaining how (1) behavioural between‐ and within‐individual variabilities connect with internal state variable dynamics, (2) physiology and behaviour are explicitly interconnected by mass/energy fluxes, and (3) different LHs may arise from both behavioural and physiological variabilities in a given ecological context. Our novel theoretical model reveals encouraging opportunities for empiricists and theoreticians to delve into the eco‐evolutionary processes that favour or hinder the development of between‐individual differences in behaviour and the evolution of personality‐dependent movement syndromes.

A Review of the Phenotypic Traits Associated with Insect Dispersal Polymorphism, and Experimental Designs for Sorting out Resident and Disperser Phenotypes

“…Enabling and enhancing traits related to physiological, biochemical, or energy budget aspects, as well as molecular mechanisms of wing polymorphism and the genetic basis of insect dispersal, have been reviewed by several authors [37,[109][110][111][112][113]. Even if physiological, molecular and genetic aspects are not considered in this article, it should be kept in mind that behavior, physiology and life-history are covarying traits which have been unified under the concept of pace-of-life-syndrome [114,115].…”

Environmental effects on the covariation among pace-of-life traits

“…Resource acquisition constraints can have adverse effects on traits such as growth, metabolic rates or developmental time, while simultaneously amplifying their associations with correlated behavioural traits (Campos-Candela, Palmer, Balle, Álvarez, & Alós, 2019;Dirienzo & Montiglio, 2016). More broadly, exposure to moderate environmental stressors tends to amplify or reveal hidden trait correlations (Killen, Marras, Metcalfe, McKenzie, & Domenici, 2013).…”

Abnormal energy metabolism can alter foraging behavior in termites in different social contexts

“…The sensory and higher-order integrative processing mechanisms that are used when insects behave in complex social contexts are also associated with nervous systems of the brain [64], and the energetic basis of these behaviors is a bridge between behavioral ecology and neuroscience [16]. Moreover, intermediates of energy metabolism can impact the concentration of neurotransmitters by regulating the synthesis of precursors such as alpha-ketoglutarate, which is the precursor of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate produced via the TCA cycle [57,65] [68,69]. The foraging success of dsIDH-injected workers significantly increased (Fig 3E and F), while it decreased sharply when predator ants were present without nestmate soldiers (Treatments 8 in Table 1), indicating that predator ants seriously affect foraging behavior and that the absence of nestmate soldiers means that foraging workers face a greater risk of predation if worker termites forage for a long time and feed on a large amount of food when the energy supply is lacking [2].…”