Informational Mismatches: A Neglected Threat of Climate Change to Interspecific Interactions

Abstract

Interspecific interactions are deeply affected by the current scenario of climate change. This is because interactions are sensitive to many traits of interacting species as phenology, distribution, behavior, and relative abundances which may be differently influenced by climate change in each species. In this scenario, positive interactions, which require temporal coordination of events of life history of interacting species, could be particularly altered due to differential effects of climate change on phenology, apart from by the effects on abundance and distribution. Hitherto, studies focusing on the effects of climate change on positive biotic interactions are scarce and mainly focused on plant-pollinator interactions. Here I propose that, by inducing informational mismatches, climate change may lead to individuals from competing species relying on heterospecific social information to making mis-or un-informed decisions. The idea is that competing species are valuable sources of social information to each other provided overlap of their activities occurs. However, whenever coordination of events fails, competing species will co-occur at the wrong moment, co-occur only in small numbers or even not co-occur at all and thus they will not be able to access useful or any social information from heterospecifics. In that scenario, interacting species would be mis-or un-informed, and, consequently, decision taking will be impaired, leading to disequilibrium in the community. Throughout the manuscript, I will develop the idea of mismatches of information and illustrate it with some case studies.

Heterospecific Nest Site Copying Behavior in a Wild Bird: Assessing the Influence of Genetics and Past Experience on a Joint Breeding Phenotype

“…The usual time interval between average tit and flycatcher laying date is 2-3 weeks on Gotland but it may strongly vary among years ( Table 2). When tit reproduction is delayed, the number of tit demonstrators upon flycatcher arrival from wintering grounds, and thus the strength and possibly the reliability of heterospecific information, may decrease, due in particular to environmental stochasticity (see also Parejo, 2016 for a discussion on information mismatching). Interestingly, female pied flycatchers have been shown to prefer settling in forest patches where tit phenology is early (Samplonius and Both, 2017).…”

On resolving the selective interspecific information use vs. owner aggression hypothesis dilemma—a commentary

“…In any system involving information use between migrant and resident species, interspecific differences in phenology will be a crucial factor shaping the availability and value of social cues. Under the selective interspecific information use scenario, this factor will be the extent of phenological mismatch between the timing of breeding for tits and the arrival of flycatchers from wintering grounds Parejo 2016;Forsman et al 2018). Residents can track changes in environmental conditions at breeding grounds and flexibly adjust their breeding phenology (e.g., Wesołowski et al 2016).…”

“…Varying extent of phenological mismatch implies then that in some years flycatchers will prospect tit nests during incubation stage, while in others during egg laying. For flycatchers using tit clutch size as a cue for tit nest site preference, this in turn will affect the availability and value of social information (Parejo 2016). In some years, the information about tit clutch size will be available and reliably reflect final tit investment, but this cue will be less reliable in seasons with higher temporal overlap between the onset of tit breeding and the timing of flycatcher arrival, which in turn may affect social information use patterns.…”

“…Consequently, when prospecting upon arrival in 2013, flycatchers detected mainly small tit clutches and rejected tit preferences. Such interannual changes in the availability and value of social information, in turn shaping patterns of decision-making, will emerge in any system where social cues are flexibly adjusted in response to environmental factors (Parejo 2016).…”

Quantitative genetics of the use of conspecific and heterospecific social cues for breeding site choice

“…The use of conspecific and heterospecific social information may have major ecological and evolutionary implications for individuals, populations, and communities (Danchin et al 2004;Schmidt et al 2010;Gil et al 2018). For example, by enabling individuals to assess their environment more quickly and/or at larger spatial scales compared to personal information, the use of social information may enhance individuals' ability to respond to environmental changes, such as climate change (Ponchon et al 2015;Keith and Bull 2017; but see Parejo 2016). The use of social information may also result in cultural evolution that may in turn affect genetic evolution and even speciation (Danchin et al 2004;Heyer et al 2005;Laland et al 2010;Verzijden et al 2012;Aplin et al 2015).…”