Predicting multifarious behavioural divergence in the wild

Heinen‐Kay, Justa L.; Schmidt, Danielle; Stafford, A. Tayt; Costa, Michael T.; Peterson, M. Nils; Kern, Elizabeth M.A.; Langerhans, R. Brian

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.08.016

Cited by 29 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Modelling approaches indicate variation in ecological conditions such as mortality risk to play a critical role in favouring or breaking apart combinations between POLS traits 28 . In agreement with predictions, empirical evidence confirmed that patterns of behavioural correlations varied among fish populations 20 , 21 , including mosquitofish 64 , adapted to divergent predator regimes. Different correlations among POLS traits observed here between SG and FG fish could then be explained as the result of variation in mortality risks in their native environment.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Ecological conditions drive pace-of-life syndromes by shaping relationships between life history, physiology and behaviour in two populations of Eastern mosquitofish

Polverino

Santostefano

Díaz‐Gil

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis predicts variation in behaviour and physiology among individuals to be associated with variation in life history. Thus, individuals on the “fast” end of POLS continuum grow faster, exhibit higher metabolism, are more risk prone, but die earlier than ones on the “slow” end. Empirical support is nevertheless mixed and modelling studies suggested POLS to vary along selection gradients. Therefore, including ecological variation when testing POLS is vastly needed to determine whether POLS is a fixed construct or the result of specific selection processes. Here, we tested POLS predictions between and within two fish populations originating from different ecological conditions. We observed opposing life histories between populations, characterized by differential investments into growth, fecundity, and functional morphology under identical laboratory conditions. A slower life history was, on average, associated with boldness (latency to emergence from a refuge), high activity (short freezing time and long distance travelled), and increased standard metabolism. Correlation structures among POLS traits were not consistent between populations, with the expression of POLS observed in the slow-growing but not in the fast-growing population. Our results suggest that POLS traits can evolve independently from one another and that their coevolution depends upon specific ecological processes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Ecological conditions drive pace-of-life syndromes by shaping relationships between life history, physiology and behaviour in two populations of Eastern mosquitofish

Polverino

Santostefano

Díaz‐Gil

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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“…As discussed before (Riesch et al 2013), this could reflect constraints on female life-history shifts because increased reproductive allocation can result in decreased locomotor escape performance and thus decreased survival in the presence of predators (Ghalambor et al 2003, Langerhans and Reznick 2010, Banet et al 2016. Our results add to the growing evidence of predation as a major driver of adaptive diversification in livebearing fishes (Reznick and Endler 1982, Martin et al 2014, Heinen-Kay et al 2016. That said, life-history divergence in males (and weakly in females), was influenced by resources, albeit independent of predation.…”

Section: Sexsupporting

confidence: 64%

Multiple traits and multifarious environments: integrated divergence of morphology and life history

Riesch

Martin

Langerhans

2019

Oikos

Self Cite

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Understanding complex responses of multiple character suites (e.g. behaviour, life history, morphology) across multifarious environments is a challenging task. Here we use a multivariate approach (partial least squares structural equation modelling) to disentangle environmental drivers (i.e. predation, resource availability and population demographics) of population divergence in life history and morphology. We further employ a two‐block partial least squares analysis in a novel approach to uncovering integrated and independent aspects of divergence in correlated character suites. Examining Bahamas mosquitofish Gambusia hubbsi inhabiting blue holes, we found phenotypic divergence mainly resulted from differences in predation regimes, but demography and resources also proved important in particular aspects of divergence. We uncovered significant covariation among life histories and morphologies, and revealed that phenotypic divergence between predation regimes involved both integrated and independent responses. For instance, female life histories strongly diverged independently of morphology, while some morphological shifts (abdominal distension) resulted from changes in fecundity; males showed strong morphological divergence independent of life history, but much of their life‐history shifts reflected joint morphological changes (lean weight and body shape). Our study illustrates the utility of gathering disparate data types from multiple populations/species to better understand the causes and nature of phenotypic divergence in the wild.

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“…Many stress assays are highly reliant on visual cues, which provides a confounding factor for blind cavefish. We therefore tested stress using an assay that would be less dependent on eye loss, the novel tank test (Levin et al, 2007), which is commonly used to measure the innate response to stressors in fishes (Cachat et al, 2010; Heinen-Kay et al, 2016; Levin et al, 2007; Thompson et al, 2016). When initially placed in an unfamiliar tank, adults prefer to spend more time in the bottom half of the chamber, yet over time they begin exploring both halves with near-equal frequency (Cachat et al, 2010; Levin et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergence on reduced stress behavior in the Mexican blind cavefish

Chin

Gassant

Amaral

et al. 2018

Developmental Biology

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Responding appropriately to stress is essential for survival, yet in pathological states, these responses can develop into debilitating conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and generalized anxiety. While genetic models have provided insight into the neurochemical and neuroanatomical pathways that underlie stress, little is known about how evolutionary processes and naturally occurring variation contribute to the diverse responses to stressful stimuli observed in the animal kingdom. The Mexican cavefish is a powerful system to address how altered genetic and neuronal systems can give rise to altered behaviors. When introduced into a novel tank, surface fish and cavefish display a stereotypic stress response, characterized by reduced exploratory behavior and increased immobility, akin to "freezing". The stress response in cave and surface forms is reduced by pharmacological treatment with the anxiolytic drug, buspirone, fortifying the notion that behavior in the assay represents a conserved stress state. We find that cave populations display reduced behavioral measures of stress compared to surface conspecifics, including increased time in the top half of the tank and fewer periods of immobility. Further, reduced stress responses are observed in multiple independently derived cavefish populations, suggesting convergence on loss of behavioral stress responses in the novel tank assay. These findings provide evidence of a naturally occurring species with two drastically different forms in which a shift in predator-rich ecology to one with few predators corresponds to a reduction in stress behavior.

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Predicting multifarious behavioural divergence in the wild

Cited by 29 publications

References 60 publications

Ecological conditions drive pace-of-life syndromes by shaping relationships between life history, physiology and behaviour in two populations of Eastern mosquitofish

Ecological conditions drive pace-of-life syndromes by shaping relationships between life history, physiology and behaviour in two populations of Eastern mosquitofish

Multiple traits and multifarious environments: integrated divergence of morphology and life history

Convergence on reduced stress behavior in the Mexican blind cavefish

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