1
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Shah SS, Rubenstein DR. Intraspecific variation in group structure arises due to environmentally-mediated directional dispersal in a cooperative breeder. J Anim Ecol 2024. [PMID: 39104146 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.14162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 07/16/2024] [Indexed: 08/07/2024]
Abstract
Many cooperatively breeding species live in groups with complex structure-large group sizes, low and variable kin structure, and multiple breeding pairs. Since these mixed-kin groups typically form because of immigration of unrelated individuals of both sexes in addition to limited offspring dispersal, differences in patterns of dispersal can generate variation in group structure, even within the same species or population. Here, we examine how environmentally mediated dispersal patterns influence variation in group structure in the plural breeding superb starling (Lamprotornis superbus), an avian cooperative breeder that inhabits a spatiotemporally variable savanna environment and forms mixed-kin groups with variable group sizes and more than one breeding pair per group. Using 4068 genome-wide polymorphic loci and fine-scale, remotely sensed ecological data from 22 groups sampled across a nearly 200 km2 environmental gradient in central Kenya, we find evidence of not only frequent and long-distance dispersal in both sexes (low isolation-by-distance and weak genetic structure), but also directional dispersal from small groups in lower quality habitat with low normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) to large groups in higher quality habitat with high NDVI. Additionally, we find stronger genetic structure among groups in lower quality habitat, and higher genetic diversity and lower relatedness of groups in higher quality habitat. Previous work using long-term data from groups in the same population has shown that groups with lower relatedness are larger and have more breeding pairs. Long-distance, directional dispersal to maximise individual fitness can thus lead to smaller and simpler kin-based social groups in lower quality habitat, but larger and more complex mixed-kin groups in higher quality habitat. Such intraspecific, within-population variation in group structure, including variation in kin structure of social groups, could have profound implications for the relative importance of the evolutionary mechanisms (i.e. direct vs. indirect fitness benefits) underlying the formation of cooperative societies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shailee S Shah
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
| | - Dustin R Rubenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
- Center for Integrative Animal Behavior, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
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2
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Bliard L, Dufour P, Griesser M, Covas R. Family living and cooperative breeding in birds are associated with the number of avian predators. Evolution 2024; 78:1317-1324. [PMID: 38650425 DOI: 10.1093/evolut/qpae058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2023] [Revised: 04/03/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024]
Abstract
Cooperative breeding occurs when individuals contribute parental care to offspring that are not their own. Numerous intra- and interspecific studies have aimed to explain the evolution of this behavior. Recent comparative work suggests that family living (i.e., when offspring remain with their parents beyond independence) is a critical stepping stone in the evolution of cooperative breeding. Thus, it is key to understand the factors that facilitate the evolution of family living. Within-species studies suggest that protection from predators is a critical function of group living, through both passive benefits such as dilution effects and active benefits such as prosocial antipredator behaviors in family groups. However, the association between predation risk and the formation and prevalence of family groups and cooperative breeding remains untested globally. Here, we use phylogenetic comparative analyses including 2,984 bird species to show that family living and cooperative breeding are associated with increased occurrence of avian predators. These cross-species findings lend support to previous suggestions based on intraspecific studies that social benefits of family living, such as protection against predation, could favor the evolution of delayed dispersal and cooperative breeding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louis Bliard
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, Zurich University, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Paul Dufour
- Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden
- Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Göteborg, Sweden
| | - Michael Griesser
- Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
- Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Rita Covas
- CIBIO-InBio, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Laboratório Associado, University of Porto, Vairão, Portugal
- BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Vairão, Portugal
- Fitzpatrick Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
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3
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Ben Mocha Y, Scemama de Gialluly S, Griesser M, Markman S. What is cooperative breeding in mammals and birds? Removing definitional barriers for comparative research. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2023; 98:1845-1861. [PMID: 37332253 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12986] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2022] [Revised: 05/30/2023] [Accepted: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/20/2023]
Abstract
Cooperative breeding (i.e. when alloparents care for the offspring of other group members) has been studied for nearly a century. Yet, inconsistent definitions of this breeding system still hamper comparative research. Here, we identify two major inconsistencies, discuss their consequences and propose a way forward. First, some researchers restrict the term 'cooperative breeding' to species with non-breeding alloparents. We show that such restrictive definitions lack distinct quantitative criteria to define non-breeding alloparents. This ambiguity, we argue, reflects the reproductive-sharing continuum among cooperatively breeding species. We therefore suggest that cooperative breeding should not be restricted to the few species with extreme reproductive skew and should be defined independent of the reproductive status of alloparents. Second, definitions rarely specify the type, extent and prevalence of alloparental care required to classify species as cooperative breeders. We thus analysed published data to propose qualitative and quantitative criteria for alloparental care. We conclude by proposing the following operational definition: cooperative breeding is a reproductive system where >5% of broods/litters in at least one population receive species-typical parental care and conspecifics provide proactive alloparental care that fulfils >5% of at least one type of the offspring's needs. This operational definition is designed to increase comparability across species and disciplines while allowing to study the intriguing phenomenon of cooperative breeding as a behaviour with multiple dimensions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yitzchak Ben Mocha
- Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, Haifa, 3498838, Israel
- Department of Biology and Environment, University of Haifa at Oranim, Tivon, 36006, Israel
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, Konstanz, 78457, Germany
- Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, Konstanz, 78457, Germany
| | | | - Michael Griesser
- Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, Konstanz, 78457, Germany
- Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, Konstanz, 78457, Germany
- Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, Universitätsstrasse 10, Konstanz, 78457, Germany
| | - Shai Markman
- Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, Haifa, 3498838, Israel
- Department of Biology and Environment, University of Haifa at Oranim, Tivon, 36006, Israel
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4
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Fisher DN, Cheney BJ. Dolphin social phenotypes vary in response to food availability but not the North Atlantic Oscillation index. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20231187. [PMID: 37817593 PMCID: PMC10565371 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1187] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Social behaviours can allow individuals to flexibly respond to environmental change, potentially buffering adverse effects. However, individuals may respond differently to the same environmental stimulus, complicating predictions for population-level response to environmental change. Here, we show that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) alter their social behaviour at yearly and monthly scales in response to a proxy for food availability (salmon abundance) but do not respond to variation in a proxy for climate (the North Atlantic Oscillation index). There was also individual variation in plasticity for gregariousness and connectedness to distant parts of the social network, although these traits showed limited repeatability. By contrast, individuals showed consistent differences in clustering with their immediate social environment at the yearly scale but no individual variation in plasticity for this trait at either timescale. These results indicate that social behaviour in free-ranging cetaceans can be highly resource dependent with individuals increasing their connectedness over short timescales but possibly reducing their wider range of connection at longer timescales. Some social traits showed more individual variation in plasticity or mean behaviour than others, highlighting how predictions for the responses of populations to environmental variation must consider the type of individual variation present in the population.
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Affiliation(s)
- David N. Fisher
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK
| | - Barbara J. Cheney
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Lighthouse Field Station, George Street, Cromarty IV11 8YL, UK
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5
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Green JP, Franco C, Davidson AJ, Lee V, Stockley P, Beynon RJ, Hurst JL. Cryptic kin discrimination during communal lactation in mice favours cooperation between relatives. Commun Biol 2023; 6:734. [PMID: 37454193 PMCID: PMC10349843 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05115-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Breeding females can cooperate by rearing their offspring communally, sharing synergistic benefits of offspring care but risking exploitation by partners. In lactating mammals, communal rearing occurs mostly among close relatives. Inclusive fitness theory predicts enhanced cooperation between related partners and greater willingness to compensate for any partner under-investment, while females are less likely to bias investment towards own offspring. We use a dual isotopic tracer approach to track individual milk allocation when familiar pairs of sisters or unrelated house mice reared offspring communally. Closely related pairs show lower energy demand and pups experience better access to non-maternal milk. Lactational investment is more skewed between sister partners but females pay greater energetic costs per own offspring reared with an unrelated partner. The choice of close kin as cooperative partners is strongly favoured by these direct as well as indirect benefits, providing a driver to maintain female kin groups for communal breeding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan P Green
- Mammalian Behaviour & Evolution Group, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Neston, CH64 7TE, UK
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, 11a Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, UK
| | - Catarina Franco
- Centre for Proteome Research, Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZB, UK
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0QH, UK
| | - Amanda J Davidson
- Mammalian Behaviour & Evolution Group, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Neston, CH64 7TE, UK
| | - Vicki Lee
- Centre for Proteome Research, Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZB, UK
| | - Paula Stockley
- Mammalian Behaviour & Evolution Group, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Neston, CH64 7TE, UK
| | - Robert J Beynon
- Centre for Proteome Research, Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZB, UK
| | - Jane L Hurst
- Mammalian Behaviour & Evolution Group, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Neston, CH64 7TE, UK.
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6
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Bourne AR, Ridley AR, Cunningham SJ. Helpers don't help when it's hot in a cooperatively breeding bird, the Southern Pied Babbler. Behav Ecol 2023; 34:562-570. [PMID: 37434640 PMCID: PMC10332451 DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arad023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2022] [Revised: 02/25/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 07/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Cooperative breeding, where more than two individuals invest in rearing a single brood, occurs in many bird species globally and often contributes to improved breeding outcomes. However, high temperatures are associated with poor breeding outcomes in many species, including cooperative species. We used data collected over three austral summer breeding seasons to investigate the contribution that helpers make to daytime incubation in a cooperatively breeding species, the Southern Pied Babbler Turdoides bicolor, and the ways in which their contribution is influenced by temperature. Helpers spent a significantly higher percentage of their time foraging (41.8 ± 13.7%) and a significantly lower percentage of their time incubating (18.5 ± 18.8%) than members of the breeding pair (31.3 ± 11% foraging and 37.4 ± 15.7% incubating). In groups with only one helper, the helper's contribution to incubation was similar to that of breeders. However, helpers in larger groups contributed less to incubation, individually, with some individuals investing no time in incubation on a given observation day. Helpers significantly decrease their investment in incubation on hot days (>35.5°C), while breeders tend to maintain incubation effort as temperatures increase. Our results demonstrate that pied babblers share the workload of incubation unequally between breeders and helpers, and this inequity is more pronounced during hot weather. These results may help to explain why recent studies have found that larger group size does not buffer against the impacts of high temperatures in this and other cooperatively breeding species.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Amanda R Ridley
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia
| | - Susan J Cunningham
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
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7
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Mangini GG, Rutt CL, Sridhar H, Buitron G, Muñoz J, Robinson SK, Montaño-Centellas F, Zarco A, Fanjul ME, Fernández-Arellano G, Xing S, Camerlenghi E. A classification scheme for mixed-species bird flocks. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20220100. [PMID: 37066650 PMCID: PMC10107246 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 01/17/2023] [Indexed: 04/18/2023] Open
Abstract
The literature on mixed-species flocks references a wide variety of bird associations. These studies, however, have used an array of unstructured characteristics to describe flocks, ranging from the temporal occurrence of flocking to the identity and behavioural features of constituent members, with little consensus on which key traits define and characterize a mixed-species flock. Moreover, although most studies report species-specific roles, there is no clear consensus about what these roles signify nor how to define them. This lack of consistency limits our ability to compare flocks from different habitats, regions and species pools. To unify this sizable body of literature, we reviewed and synthesized 538 studies on mixed-species flocks. We propose 13 categories to classify mixed-species flocks using behavioural and physical traits at the flock and participant level, as well as the habitat where the flock occurs. Lastly, we discuss the historical terminology for different species roles and propose definitions to clarify and distinguish among nuclear, leader, sentinel, and flock-following species. We envision that these guidelines will provide a universal language for mixed-species flock research, paving the way for future comparisons and new insight between different regions and systems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Mixed-species groups and aggregations: shaping ecological and behavioural patterns and processes'.
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Affiliation(s)
- G. Giselle Mangini
- Instituto de Ecologia Regional (IER) CONICET-UNT, 4107 Yerba Buena, Argentina
| | | | - Hari Sridhar
- Independent Researcher, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560003, India
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria
| | - Galo Buitron
- Universidad Estatal Amazónica-Sede Académica El Pangui, Zamora Chinchipe, 190401, Ecuador
| | - Jenny Muñoz
- University of British Columbia Biodiversity Research Center, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z4
| | - Scott K. Robinson
- Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
| | | | - Agustin Zarco
- Instituto Argentino de Investigación en las Zonas Áridas (IADIZA) CONICET, 5500 Mendoza, Argentina
- Fundación de Historia Natural Félix de Azara, 1405 Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - M. Elisa Fanjul
- Instituto de Vertebrados, Zoología, Fundación Miguel Lillo, 4000 Tucumán, Argentina
- Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e IML – Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, 4000 Tucumán, Argentina
| | - Gilberto Fernández-Arellano
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação da Biodiversidade, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso – UFMT, 78060-900 Cuiabá, Brazil
| | - Shuang Xing
- School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, 518107 Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Ettore Camerlenghi
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
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8
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Lin YH, Chen YY, Rubenstein DR, Liu M, Liu M, Shen SF. Environmental quality mediates the ecological dominance of cooperatively breeding birds. Ecol Lett 2023. [PMID: 37127410 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2022] [Revised: 03/08/2023] [Accepted: 03/30/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Although social species as diverse as humans and ants are among the most abundant organisms on Earth, animals cooperate and form groups for many reasons. How these different reasons for grouping affect a species' ecological dominance remains unknown. Here we use a theoretical model to demonstrate that the different fitness benefits that animals receive by forming groups depend on the quality of their environment, which in turn impacts their ecological dominance and resilience to global change. We then test the model's key predictions using phylogenetic comparative analysis of >6500 bird species. As predicted, we find that cooperative breeders occurring in harsh and fluctuating environments have larger ranges and greater abundances than non-cooperative breeders, but cooperative breeders occurring in benign and stable environments do not. Using our model, we further show that social species living in harsh and fluctuating environments will be less vulnerable to climate change than non-social species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu-Heng Lin
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ying-Yu Chen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Dustin R Rubenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York City, New York, USA
- Center for Integrative Animal Behavior, Columbia University, New York City, New York, USA
| | - Ming Liu
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Mark Liu
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Sheng-Feng Shen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
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9
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Johnson AE, Welklin JF, Hoppe IR, Shizuka D. Ecogeography of group size suggests differences in drivers of sociality among cooperatively breeding fairywrens. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20222397. [PMID: 36919434 PMCID: PMC10015324 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 02/17/2023] [Indexed: 03/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Cooperatively breeding species exhibit a range of social behaviours associated with different costs and benefits to group living, often in association with different environmental conditions. For example, recent phylogenetic studies have collectively shown that the evolution and distribution of cooperative breeding behaviour is related to the environment. However, little is known about how environmental variation may drive differences in social systems across populations within species, and how the relationship between environmental conditions and sociality may differ across species. Here, we examine variation in social group size along a steep environmental gradient for two congeneric cooperatively breeding species of fairywrens (Maluridae) and show that they exhibit opposing ecogeographic patterns. Purple-backed fairywrens, a species in which helpers increase group productivity, have larger groups in hot, dry environments and smaller groups in cool, wet environments. By contrast, superb fairywrens, a species with helpers that do not increase group productivity despite the presence of alloparental care, exhibit the opposite trend. We suggest differences in the costs and benefits of sociality contribute to these opposing ecogeographical patterns and demonstrate that comparisons of intraspecific patterns of social variation across species can provide insight into how ecology shapes social systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allison E. Johnson
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
| | - Joseph F. Welklin
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
- Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
| | - Ian R. Hoppe
- School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583, USA
| | - Daizaburo Shizuka
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
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10
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Borger MJ, Richardson DS, Dugdale H, Burke T, Komdeur J. Testing the environmental buffering hypothesis of cooperative breeding in the Seychelles warbler. Acta Ethol 2023. [DOI: 10.1007/s10211-022-00408-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
AbstractSpecies are facing environmental challenges caused by rapidly changing environments. Globally, extreme weather events, like droughts or extreme rainfall, are increasing in frequency. Natural selection usually acts slowly, while adaptations through phenotypic plasticity are limited. Therefore, organisms may utilise other mechanisms to cope with such rapid change. Cooperative breeding is hypothesised to be one such mechanism, as helpers could increase survival probabilities of offspring, especially in harsh years. Rainfall is a cue for onset of breeding in many tropical species, to ensure young are born when food abundance is highest. Using 21 years of data, we investigate the effect of rainfall on social behaviour and life history in the insectivorous Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), a facultative cooperative breeder. We found that low rainfall is associated with reduced reproductive output and possibly with decreased survival. However, there were no statistical differences in response between groups with helpers, groups with only non-helping subordinates, and breeding pairs without subordinates. With low rainfall, more sons (the sex less likely to help) were produced, and those subordinate males already present were less likely to help. Thus, in contrast to expectations, cooperative breeding does not seem to buffer against harsh environments in Seychelles warblers, indicating that group living may be costly and thus not a mechanism for coping with changing environments. Our study showed that the interaction between the environment and life histories, including social behaviour, is complex, but that this interaction is important to consider when studying the impact of changing environments on species survival.
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11
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Baudier KM, Ostwald MM, Haney BR, Calixto JM, Cossio FJ, Fewell JH. Social Factors in Heat Survival: Multiqueen Desert Ant Colonies Have Higher and More Uniform Heat Tolerance. Physiol Biochem Zool 2022; 95:379-389. [PMID: 35914287 DOI: 10.1086/721251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
AbstractInvestigations of thermally adaptive behavioral phenotypes are critical for both understanding climate as a selective force and predicting global species distributions under climate change conditions. Cooperative nest founding is a common strategy in harsh environments for many species and can enhance growth and competitive advantage, but whether this social strategy has direct effects on thermal tolerance was previously unknown. We examined the effects of alternative social strategies on thermal tolerance in a facultatively polygynous (multiqueen) desert ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus, asking whether and how queen number affects worker thermal tolerances. We established and reared lab colonies with one to four queens, then quantified all colony member heat tolerances (maximum critical temperature [CTmax]). Workers from colonies with more queens had higher and less variant CTmax. Our findings resemble weak link patterns, in which colony group thermal performance is improved by reducing frequencies of the most temperature-vulnerable individuals. Using ambient temperatures from our collection site, we show that multiqueen colonies have thermal tolerance distributions that enable increased midday foraging in hot desert environments. Our results suggest advantages to polygyny under climate change scenarios and raise the question of whether improved thermal tolerance is a factor that has enabled the success of polygyne species in other climatically extreme environments.
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12
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Chak STC, Harris SE, Hultgren KM, Duffy JE, Rubenstein DR. Demographic inference provides insights into the extirpation and ecological dominance of eusocial snapping shrimps. J Hered 2022; 113:552-562. [PMID: 35921239 DOI: 10.1093/jhered/esac035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 07/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Although eusocial animals often achieve ecological dominance in the ecosystems where they occur, many populations are unstable, resulting in local extinction. Both patterns may be linked to the characteristic demography of eusocial species-high reproductive skew and reproductive division of labor support stable effective population sizes that make eusocial groups more competitive in some species, but also lower effective population sizes that increase susceptibility to population collapse in others. Here, we examine the relationship between demography and social organization in Synalpheus snapping shrimps, a group in which eusociality has evolved recently and repeatedly. We show using coalescent demographic modelling that eusocial species have had lower but more stable effective population sizes across 100,000 generations. Our results are consistent with the idea that stable population sizes may enable competitive dominance in eusocial shrimps, but they also suggest that recent population declines are likely caused by eusocial shrimps' heightened sensitivity to environmental changes, perhaps as a result of their low effective population sizes and localized dispersal. Thus, although the unique life histories and demography of eusocial shrimps have likely contributed to their persistence and ecological dominance over evolutionary timescales, these social traits may also make them vulnerable to contemporary environmental change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Solomon T C Chak
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.,Department of Biological Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA.,Department of Biological Sciences, SUNY College at Old Westbury, Old Westbury, NY, USA
| | - Stephen E Harris
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.,Biology Department, SUNY Purchase College, Purchase, NY, USA
| | | | - J Emmett Duffy
- Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, Smithsonian Institution, Edgewater, MD, USA
| | - Dustin R Rubenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
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13
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García-Ruiz I, Quiñones A, Taborsky M. The evolution of cooperative breeding by direct and indirect fitness effects. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabl7853. [PMID: 35622922 PMCID: PMC9140977 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl7853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2021] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The evolution of cooperative breeding has been traditionally attributed to the effect of kin selection. While there is increasing empirical evidence that direct fitness benefits are relevant, the relative importance of alternative selection mechanisms is largely obscure. Here, we model the coevolution of the cornerstones of cooperative breeding, delayed dispersal, and alloparental care, across different ecological scenarios while allowing individuals to adjust philopatry and helping levels. Our results suggest that (i) direct fitness benefits from grouping are the main driver for the evolution of philopatry; (ii) kin selection is mainly responsible for the emergence of alloparental care, but group augmentation can be a sufficient promoter in harsh environments; (iii) the coevolution of philopatry and alloparental care is subject to positive feedback; and (iv) age-dependent dispersal is triggered by both group benefits and relatedness. Model predictions are supported by empirical data and provide good opportunities for comparative analyses and experimental tests of causality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irene García-Ruiz
- Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, CH-3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland
| | - Andrés Quiñones
- Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
- Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Michael Taborsky
- Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, CH-3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland
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14
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Vásárhelyi Z, Scheuring I, Aviles L. The ecology of spider sociality – A Spatial Model. Am Nat 2022; 199:776-788. [DOI: 10.1086/719182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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15
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Biedrzycki ML, Bais HP. Kin Recognition in Plants: Did We Learn Anything From Roots? Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.785019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Kin recognition, manifesting through various traits such as changes in root or shoot growth, has been documented in several species of plants. Identifying this phenomenon in plants has intrinsic value itself, understanding why plants recognize kin and how it might benefit them evolutionarily has been of recent interest. Here we explore studies regarding nutrient and resource allocation in regard to kin recognition as well as discuss how kin recognition is involved in multispecies interactions with an emphasis on how plant roots are involved in these processes. Future directions of this research are also discussed.
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16
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Moss JB, While GM. The thermal environment as a moderator of social evolution. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2021; 96:2890-2910. [PMID: 34309173 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12784] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2020] [Revised: 07/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Animal sociality plays a crucial organisational role in evolution. As a result, understanding the factors that promote the emergence, maintenance, and diversification of animal societies is of great interest to biologists. Climate is among the foremost ecological factors implicated in evolutionary transitions in social organisation, but we are only beginning to unravel the possible mechanisms and specific climatic variables that underlie these associations. Ambient temperature is a key abiotic factor shaping the spatio-temporal distribution of individuals and has a particularly strong influence on behaviour. Whether such effects play a broader role in social evolution remains to be seen. In this review, we develop a conceptual framework for understanding how thermal effects integrate into pathways that mediate the opportunities, nature, and context of social interactions. We then implement this framework to discuss the capacity for temperature to initiate organisational changes across three broad categories of social evolution: group formation, group maintenance, and group elaboration. For each category, we focus on pivotal traits likely to have underpinned key social transitions and explore the potential for temperature to affect changes in these traits by leveraging empirical examples from the literature on thermal and behavioural ecology. Finally, we discuss research directions that should be prioritised to understand the potentially constructive and/or destructive effects of future warming on the origins, maintenance, and diversification of animal societies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeanette B Moss
- School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay, TAS, 7005, Australia
| | - Geoffrey M While
- School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay, TAS, 7005, Australia
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17
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Fisher DN, Kilgour RJ, Siracusa ER, Foote JR, Hobson EA, Montiglio PO, Saltz JB, Wey TW, Wice EW. Anticipated effects of abiotic environmental change on intraspecific social interactions. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2021; 96:2661-2693. [PMID: 34212487 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2019] [Revised: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Social interactions are ubiquitous across the animal kingdom. A variety of ecological and evolutionary processes are dependent on social interactions, such as movement, disease spread, information transmission, and density-dependent reproduction and survival. Social interactions, like any behaviour, are context dependent, varying with environmental conditions. Currently, environments are changing rapidly across multiple dimensions, becoming warmer and more variable, while habitats are increasingly fragmented and contaminated with pollutants. Social interactions are expected to change in response to these stressors and to continue to change into the future. However, a comprehensive understanding of the form and magnitude of the effects of these environmental changes on social interactions is currently lacking. Focusing on four major forms of rapid environmental change currently occurring, we review how these changing environmental gradients are expected to have immediate effects on social interactions such as communication, agonistic behaviours, and group formation, which will thereby induce changes in social organisation including mating systems, dominance hierarchies, and collective behaviour. Our review covers intraspecific variation in social interactions across environments, including studies in both the wild and in laboratory settings, and across a range of taxa. The expected responses of social behaviour to environmental change are diverse, but we identify several general themes. First, very dry, variable, fragmented, or polluted environments are likely to destabilise existing social systems. This occurs as these conditions limit the energy available for complex social interactions and affect dissimilar phenotypes differently. Second, a given environmental change can lead to opposite responses in social behaviour, and the direction of the response often hinges on the natural history of the organism in question. Third, our review highlights the fact that changes in environmental factors are not occurring in isolation: multiple factors are changing simultaneously, which may have antagonistic or synergistic effects, and more work should be done to understand these combined effects. We close by identifying methodological and analytical techniques that might help to study the response of social interactions to changing environments, highlight consistent patterns among taxa, and predict subsequent evolutionary change. We expect that the changes in social interactions that we document here will have consequences for individuals, groups, and for the ecology and evolution of populations, and therefore warrant a central place in the study of animal populations, particularly in an era of rapid environmental change.
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Affiliation(s)
- David N Fisher
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, U.K
| | - R Julia Kilgour
- Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, U.S.A
| | - Erin R Siracusa
- Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4PY, U.K
| | - Jennifer R Foote
- Department of Biology, Algoma University, 1520 Queen Street East, Sault Ste. Marie, ON, P6A 2G4, Canada
| | - Elizabeth A Hobson
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, 318 College Drive, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, U.S.A
| | - Pierre-Olivier Montiglio
- Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, 141 Avenue Président-Kennedy, Montréal, QC, H2X 3X8, Canada
| | - Julia B Saltz
- Department of Biosciences, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005-1827, U.S.A
| | - Tina W Wey
- Maelstrom Research, The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal General Hospital, 1650 Cedar Avenue, Montréal, QC, H3G 1A4, Canada
| | - Eric W Wice
- Department of Biosciences, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005-1827, U.S.A
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18
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Moss JB, Moore AJ. Constrained flexibility of parental cooperation limits adaptive responses to harsh conditions. Evolution 2021; 75:1835-1849. [PMID: 34153114 PMCID: PMC8362138 DOI: 10.1111/evo.14285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2021] [Revised: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 06/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Parental care is predicted to evolve to mitigate harsh environments, thus adaptive plasticity of care may be an important response to our climate crisis. In biparental species, fitness costs may be reduced by resolving conflict and enhancing cooperation among partners. We investigated this prediction with the burying beetle, Nicrophorus orbicollis, by exposing them to contrasting benign and harsh thermal environments. Despite measurable fitness costs under the harsh environment, sexual conflict persisted in the form of sex-specific social plasticity. That is, females provided equivalent care with or without males, whereas males with partners deserted earlier and reduced provisioning effort. The interaction of social condition and thermal environment did not explain variation in individual behavior, failing to support a temperature-mediated shift from conflict to cooperation. Examining selection gradients and splines on cumulative care revealed a likely explanation for these patterns. Contrary to predictions, increased care did not enhance offspring performance under stress. Rather, different components of care were under different selection regimes, with optimization constrained due to lack of coordination between parents. We suggest that the potential for parenting to ameliorate the effects of our climate crisis may depend on the sex-specific evolutionary drivers of parental care, and that this may be best reflected in components of care.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeanette B Moss
- Department of Entomology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30602, USA.,Current Address: Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, USA
| | - Allen J Moore
- Department of Entomology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30602, USA
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19
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Dibben‐Young A, Harmon KC, Lunow‐Luke A, Idle JL, Christensen DL, Price MR. Cooperative breeding behaviors in the Hawaiian Stilt ( Himantopus mexicanus knudseni). Ecol Evol 2021; 11:5010-5016. [PMID: 34025987 PMCID: PMC8131765 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Revised: 03/05/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Cooperative breeding, which is commonly characterized by nonbreeding individuals that assist others with reproduction, is common in avian species. However, few accounts have been reported in Charadriiformes, particularly island-nesting species. We present incidental observations of cooperative breeding behaviors in the Hawaiian Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus knudseni), an endangered subspecies of the Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), during the 2012-2020 nesting seasons on the Hawaiian islands of O'ahu and Moloka'i. We describe two different behaviors that are indicative of cooperative breeding: (a) egg incubation by multiple adults; (b) helpers-at-the-nest, whereby juveniles delay dispersal and reproduction to assist parents and siblings with reproduction. These observations are the first published accounts of cooperative breeding in this subspecies and merit further investigation, as cooperative breeding may improve population viability of the endangered, endemic Hawaiian Stilt.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kristen C. Harmon
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ManagementUniversity of Hawai‘i at MānoaHonoluluHIUSA
| | - Arianna Lunow‐Luke
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyBrown UniversityProvidenceRIUSA
| | - Jessica L. Idle
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ManagementUniversity of Hawai‘i at MānoaHonoluluHIUSA
| | - Dain L. Christensen
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ManagementUniversity of Hawai‘i at MānoaHonoluluHIUSA
| | - Melissa R. Price
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental ManagementUniversity of Hawai‘i at MānoaHonoluluHIUSA
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20
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West SA, Cooper GA, Ghoul MB, Griffin AS. Ten recent insights for our understanding of cooperation. Nat Ecol Evol 2021; 5:419-430. [PMID: 33510431 PMCID: PMC7612052 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01384-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Since Hamilton published his seminal papers in 1964, our understanding of the importance of cooperation for life on Earth has evolved beyond recognition. Early research was focused on altruism in the social insects, where the problem of cooperation was easy to see. In more recent years, research into cooperation has expanded across the entire tree of life, and has been revolutionized by advances in genetic, microbiological and analytical techniques. We highlight ten insights that have arisen from these advances, which have illuminated generalizations across different taxa, making the world simpler to explain. Furthermore, progress in these areas has opened up numerous new problems to solve, suggesting exciting directions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stuart A West
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Guy A Cooper
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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21
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Prosociality, social tolerance and partner choice facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation in common marmosets, Callithrix jacchus. Anim Behav 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.12.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
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22
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Liu M, Chen BF, Rubenstein DR, Shen SF. Social rank modulates how environmental quality influences cooperation and conflict within animal societies. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20201720. [PMID: 32993473 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Although dominance hierarchies occur in most societies, our understanding of how these power structures influence individual investment in cooperative and competitive behaviours remains elusive. Both conflict and cooperation in animal societies are often environmentally regulated, yet how individuals alter their cooperative and competitive investments as environmental quality changes remain unclear. Using game theoretic modelling, we predict that individuals of all ranks will invest more in cooperation and less in social conflict in harsh environments than individuals of the same ranks in benign environments. Counterintuitively, low-ranking subordinates should increase their investment in cooperation proportionally more than high-ranking dominants, suggesting that subordinates contribute relatively more when facing environmental challenges. We then test and confirm these predictions experimentally using the Asian burying beetle Nicrophorus nepalensis. Ultimately, we demonstrate how social rank modulates the relationships between environmental quality and cooperative and competitive behaviours, a topic crucial for understanding the evolution of complex societies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark Liu
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
| | - Bo-Fei Chen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
| | - Dustin R Rubenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.,Center for Integrative Animal Behavior, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Sheng-Feng Shen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
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23
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Martin JS, Ringen EJ, Duda P, Jaeggi AV. Harsh environments promote alloparental care across human societies. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20200758. [PMID: 32811302 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.0758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Alloparental care is central to human life history, which integrates exceptionally short interbirth intervals and large birth size with an extended period of juvenile dependency and increased longevity. Formal models, previous comparative research, and palaeoanthropological evidence suggest that humans evolved higher levels of cooperative childcare in response to increasingly harsh environments. Although this hypothesis remains difficult to test directly, the relative importance of alloparental care varies across human societies, providing an opportunity to assess how local social and ecological factors influence the expression of this behaviour. We therefore, investigated associations between alloparental infant care and socioecology across 141 non-industrialized societies. We predicted increased alloparental care in harsher environments, due to the fitness benefits of cooperation in response to shared ecological challenges. We also predicted that starvation would decrease alloparental care, due to prohibitive energetic costs. Using Bayesian phylogenetic multilevel models, we tested these predictions while accounting for potential confounds as well as for population history. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found increased alloparental infant care in regions characterized by both reduced climate predictability and relatively lower average temperatures and precipitation. We also observed reduced alloparental care under conditions of high starvation. These results provide evidence of plasticity in human alloparenting in response to ecological contexts, comparable to previously observed patterns across avian and mammalian cooperative breeders. This suggests convergent social evolutionary processes may underlie both inter- and intraspecific variation in alloparental care.
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Affiliation(s)
- J S Martin
- Human Ecology Group, Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - E J Ringen
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - P Duda
- Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Jihočeský, Czechia
| | - A V Jaeggi
- Human Ecology Group, Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.,Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
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24
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Tsai HY, Rubenstein DR, Chen BF, Liu M, Chan SF, Chen DP, Sun SJ, Yuan TN, Shen SF. Antagonistic effects of intraspecific cooperation and interspecific competition on thermal performance. eLife 2020; 9:57022. [PMID: 32807299 PMCID: PMC7442485 DOI: 10.7554/elife.57022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 07/28/2020] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding how climate-mediated biotic interactions shape thermal niche width is critical in an era of global change. Yet, most previous work on thermal niches has ignored detailed mechanistic information about the relationship between temperature and organismal performance, which can be described by a thermal performance curve. Here, we develop a model that predicts the width of thermal performance curves will be narrower in the presence of interspecific competitors, causing a species' optimal breeding temperature to diverge from that of its competitor. We test this prediction in the Asian burying beetle Nicrophorus nepalensis, confirming that the divergence in actual and optimal breeding temperatures is the result of competition with their primary competitor, blowflies. However, we further show that intraspecific cooperation enables beetles to outcompete blowflies by recovering their optimal breeding temperature. Ultimately, linking abiotic factors and biotic interactions on niche width will be critical for understanding species-specific responses to climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hsiang-Yu Tsai
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.,Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, College of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Dustin R Rubenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, United States.,Center for Integrative Animal Behavior, Columbia University, New York, United States
| | - Bo-Fei Chen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Mark Liu
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Shih-Fan Chan
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - De-Pei Chen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.,Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, College of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Syuan-Jyun Sun
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Tzu-Neng Yuan
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Sheng-Feng Shen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.,Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, College of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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25
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Bourne AR, Cunningham SJ, Spottiswoode CN, Ridley AR. High temperatures drive offspring mortality in a cooperatively breeding bird. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20201140. [PMID: 33043866 DOI: 10.1101/2020.05.31.126862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023] Open
Abstract
An improved understanding of life-history responses to current environmental variability is required to predict species-specific responses to anthopogenic climate change. Previous research has suggested that cooperation in social groups may buffer individuals against some of the negative effects of unpredictable climates. We use a 15-year dataset on a cooperative breeding arid zone bird, the southern pied babbler Turdoides bicolor, to test (i) whether environmental conditions and group size correlate with survival of young during three development stages (egg, nestling, fledgling) and (ii) whether group size mitigates the impacts of adverse environmental conditions on survival of young. Exposure to high mean daily maximum temperatures (mean Tmax) during early development was associated with reduced survival probabilities of young in all three development stages. No young survived when mean Tmax > 38°C, across all group sizes. Low survival of young at high temperatures has broad implications for recruitment and population persistence in avian communities given the rapid pace of advancing climate change. Impacts of high temperatures on survival of young were not moderated by group size, suggesting that the availability of more helpers in a group is unlikely to buffer against compromised offspring survival as average and maximum temperatures increase with rapid anthropogenic climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda R Bourne
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
| | - Susan J Cunningham
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
| | - Claire N Spottiswoode
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
| | - Amanda R Ridley
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
- Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia
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26
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Bourne AR, Cunningham SJ, Spottiswoode CN, Ridley AR. High temperatures drive offspring mortality in a cooperatively breeding bird. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20201140. [PMID: 33043866 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
An improved understanding of life-history responses to current environmental variability is required to predict species-specific responses to anthopogenic climate change. Previous research has suggested that cooperation in social groups may buffer individuals against some of the negative effects of unpredictable climates. We use a 15-year dataset on a cooperative breeding arid zone bird, the southern pied babbler Turdoides bicolor, to test (i) whether environmental conditions and group size correlate with survival of young during three development stages (egg, nestling, fledgling) and (ii) whether group size mitigates the impacts of adverse environmental conditions on survival of young. Exposure to high mean daily maximum temperatures (mean Tmax) during early development was associated with reduced survival probabilities of young in all three development stages. No young survived when mean Tmax > 38°C, across all group sizes. Low survival of young at high temperatures has broad implications for recruitment and population persistence in avian communities given the rapid pace of advancing climate change. Impacts of high temperatures on survival of young were not moderated by group size, suggesting that the availability of more helpers in a group is unlikely to buffer against compromised offspring survival as average and maximum temperatures increase with rapid anthropogenic climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda R Bourne
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
| | - Susan J Cunningham
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
| | - Claire N Spottiswoode
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.,Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
| | - Amanda R Ridley
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.,Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia
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27
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Liu 劉彥廷 M, Chan 詹仕凡 SF, Rubenstein DR, Sun 孫烜駿 SJ, Chen 陳伯飛 BF, Shen 沈聖峰 SF. Ecological Transitions in Grouping Benefits Explain the Paradox of Environmental Quality and Sociality. Am Nat 2020; 195:818-832. [PMID: 32364780 DOI: 10.1086/708185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Both benign and harsh environments promote the evolution of sociality. This paradox-societies occur in environments of such contrasting quality-may be explained by the different types of benefits that individuals receive from grouping: resource defense benefits that derive from group-defended critical resources versus collective action benefits that result from social cooperation among group members. Here, we investigate cooperative behavior in the burying beetle Nicrophorus nepalensis along an elevational gradient where environmental quality (climate and competition) varies with altitude. We show that climate (temperature) and competition (both intra- and interspecific) independently and synergistically influence sociality via different grouping benefits that vary along the gradient. At low elevations where interspecific competition for resources is intense, groups gain from the collective action benefit of increased interspecific competitive ability. In contrast, pairs have higher fitness at intermediate elevations where intraspecific competition for resources is greatest because resource defense is the key grouping benefit. However, groups and pairs have similar fitness at high elevations, suggesting that there is no grouping benefit in such physiologically challenging environments. Our results demonstrate that sociality is favored for different reasons under a range of environmental conditions, perhaps explaining why animal societies occur in environments of such contrasting quality.
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28
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Can't see the “hood” for the trees: Can avian cooperative breeding currently be understood using the phylogenetic comparative method? ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.asb.2019.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
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