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Ålund M, Harper B, Kjærnested S, Ohl JE, Phillips JG, Sattler J, Thompson J, Varg JE, Wargenau S, Boughman JW, Keagy J. Sensory environment affects Icelandic threespine stickleback's anti-predator escape behaviour. Proc Biol Sci 2022; 289:20220044. [PMID: 35382599 PMCID: PMC8984813 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2022] [Accepted: 03/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Human-induced changes in climate and habitats push populations to adapt to novel environments, including new sensory conditions, such as reduced visibility. We studied how colonizing newly formed glacial lakes with turbidity-induced low-visibility affects anti-predator behaviour in Icelandic threespine sticklebacks. We tested nearly 400 fish from 15 populations and four habitat types varying in visibility and colonization history in their reaction to two predator cues (mechano-visual versus olfactory) in high versus low-visibility light treatments. Fish reacted differently to the cues and were affected by lighting environment, confirming that cue modality and light levels are important for predator detection and evasion. Fish from spring-fed lakes, especially from the highlands (likely more diverged from marine fish than lowland fish), reacted fastest to mechano-visual cues and were generally most active. Highland glacial fish showed strong responses to olfactory cues and, counter to predictions from the flexible stem hypothesis, the greatest plasticity in response to light levels. This study, leveraging natural, repeated invasions of novel sensory habitats, (i) illustrates rapid changes in anti-predator behaviour that follow due to adaptation, early life experience, or both, and (ii) suggests an additional role for behavioural plasticity enabling population persistence in the face of frequent changes in environmental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Murielle Ålund
- Department of Ecology and Genetics, Animal Ecology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Integrative Biology, and
- BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | | | - Sigurlaug Kjærnested
- Department of Aquaculture & Fish Biology, Hólar University College, Sauðárkrókur, Iceland
| | - Julian E. Ohl
- Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
| | - John G. Phillips
- Department of Integrative Biology, and
- BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA
| | | | | | - Javier E. Varg
- Department of Ecology and Genetics, Animal Ecology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Integrative Biology, and
| | - Sven Wargenau
- Institute of Cell Dynamics and Imaging, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Janette W. Boughman
- Department of Integrative Biology, and
- BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Jason Keagy
- Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
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Martin KE, Blewett TA, Burnett M, Rubinger K, Standen EM, Taylor DS, Trueman J, Turko AJ, Weir L, West CM, Wright PA, Currie S. The importance of familiarity, relatedness, and vision in social recognition in wild and laboratory populations of a selfing, hermaphroditic mangrove fish. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-022-03147-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
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Santacà M, Dadda M, Bisazza A. The role of visual and olfactory cues in social decisions of guppies and zebrafish. Anim Behav 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.08.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
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Mobley RB, Boughman JW. Variation in the Sensory Space of Three-spined Stickleback Populations. Integr Comp Biol 2020; 61:50-61. [PMID: 33382869 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icaa145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The peripheral sensory systems, whose morphological attributes help determine the acquisition of distinct types of information, provide a means to quantitatively compare multiple modalities of a species' sensory ecology. We used morphological metrics to characterize multiple sensory modalities-the visual, olfactory, and mechanosensory lateral line sensory systems-for Gasterosteus aculeatus, the three-spined stickleback, to compare how sensory systems vary in animals that evolve in different ecological conditions. We hypothesized that the dimensions of sensory organs and correlations among sensory systems vary in populations adapted to marine and freshwater environments, and have diverged further among freshwater lake-dwelling populations. Our results showed that among environments, fish differed in which senses are relatively elaborated or reduced. When controlling for body length, littoral fish had larger eyes, more neuromasts, and smaller olfactory tissue area than pelagic or marine populations. We also found differences in the direction and magnitude of correlations among sensory systems for populations even within the same habitat type. Our data suggest that populations take different trajectories in how visual, olfactory, and lateral line systems respond to their environment. For the populations we studied, sensory modalities do not conform in a predictable way to the ecological categories we assigned.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert B Mobley
- Department of Integrative Biology, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior, BEACON, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Janette W Boughman
- Department of Integrative Biology, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior, BEACON, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
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Does humic acid alter visually and chemically guided foraging in stickleback fish? Anim Cogn 2019; 23:101-108. [PMID: 31620906 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01319-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2019] [Revised: 09/11/2019] [Accepted: 10/04/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Sensory systems function under the influence of multiple, interacting environmental properties. When environments change, so may perception through one or more sensory systems, as alterations in transmission properties may change how organisms obtain and use information. Humic acids, a natural and anthropogenically produced class of chemicals, have attributes that may change chemical and visual environments of aquatic animals, potentially with detrimental consequences on their ability to locate necessary resources. Here, we explore how environmental disturbance affects the way threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) use visual and olfactory information during foraging. We compared foraging behavior using visual, olfactory, and bimodal (visual and olfactory) information in the presence and absence of humic acids. We found evidence that humic acids reduced olfactory-based food detection. While visual perception was not substantially impaired by humic acids, the visual sense alone did not compensate for the loss of olfactory perception. These findings suggest that a suite of senses still may not be capable of compensating for the loss of information from individual modalities. Thus, senses may react disparately to rapid environmental change, and thereby push species into altered evolutionary trajectories.
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Aggregating behaviour in invasive Caribbean lionfish is driven by habitat complexity. Sci Rep 2019; 9:783. [PMID: 30692608 PMCID: PMC6349842 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-37459-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2018] [Accepted: 11/30/2018] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Caribbean lionfish (Pterois spp.) are considered the most heavily impacting invasive marine vertebrate ever recorded. However, current management is largely inadequate, relying on opportunistic culling by recreational SCUBA divers. Culling efficiency could be greatly improved by exploiting natural aggregations, but to date this behaviour has only been recorded anecdotally, and the drivers are unknown. We found aggregations to be common in situ, but detected no conspecific attraction through visual or olfactory cues in laboratory experiments. Aggregating individuals were on average larger, but showed no further differences in morphology or life history. However, using visual assessments and 3D modelling we show lionfish prefer broad-scale, but avoid fine-scale, habitat complexity. We therefore suggest that lionfish aggregations are coincidental based on individuals’ mutual attraction to similar reef structure to maximise hunting efficiency. Using this knowledge, artificial aggregation devices might be developed to concentrate lionfish densities and thus improve culling efficiency.
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Reyes Blengini F, Tassino B, Passos C. Females of the annual killifish Austrolebias reicherti (Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae) recognize conspecific mates based upon chemical cues. Behav Processes 2018; 155:33-37. [DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2017] [Revised: 07/05/2017] [Accepted: 08/13/2017] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
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Butler JM, Field KE, Maruska KP. Cobalt Chloride Treatment Used to Ablate the Lateral Line System Also Impairs the Olfactory System in Three Freshwater Fishes. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0159521. [PMID: 27416112 PMCID: PMC4944935 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2016] [Accepted: 07/05/2016] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Fishes use multimodal signals during both inter- and intra-sexual displays to convey information about their sex, reproductive state, and social status. These complex behavioral displays can include visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and hydrodynamic signals, and the relative role of each sensory channel in these complex multi-sensory interactions is a common focus of neuroethology. The mechanosensory lateral line system of fishes detects near-body water movements and is implicated in a variety of behaviors including schooling, rheotaxis, social communication, and prey detection. Cobalt chloride is commonly used to chemically ablate lateral line neuromasts, thereby eliminating water-movement cues to test for mechanosensory-mediated behavioral functions. However, cobalt acts as a nonspecific calcium channel antagonist and could potentially disrupt function of all superficially located sensory receptor cells, including those for chemosensing. Here, we examined whether CoCl2 treatment used to ablate the lateral line system also impairs olfaction in three freshwater fishes, the African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni, goldfish Carassius auratus, and the Mexican blind cavefish Astyanax mexicanus. To examine the impact of CoCl2 on the activity of peripheral receptors, we quantified DASPEI fluorescence intensity of the olfactory epithelium from fish exposed to control and CoCl2 solutions. In addition, we examined brain activation in olfactory processing regions of A. burtoni immersed in either control or cobalt solutions. All three species exposed to CoCl2 had decreased DASPEI staining of the olfactory epithelium, and in A. burtoni, cobalt treatment caused reduced neural activation in olfactory processing regions of the brain. To our knowledge this is the first empirical evidence demonstrating that the same CoCl2 treatment used to ablate the lateral line system also impairs olfactory function. These data have important implications for the use of CoCl2 in future research and suggest that previous studies using CoCl2 should be reinterpreted in the context of both impaired mechanoreception and olfaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie M Butler
- Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, 107 Life Sciences Bldg., Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, United States of America
| | - Karen E Field
- Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, 107 Life Sciences Bldg., Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, United States of America
| | - Karen P Maruska
- Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, 107 Life Sciences Bldg., Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, United States of America
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