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Stamps JA, Biro PA. Time-specific convergence and divergence in individual differences in behavior: Theory, protocols and analyzes. Ecol Evol 2023; 13:e10615. [PMID: 38034332 PMCID: PMC10682899 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2023] [Revised: 09/23/2023] [Accepted: 09/29/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Over the years, theoreticians and empiricists working in a wide range of disciplines, including physiology, ethology, psychology, and behavioral ecology, have suggested a variety of reasons why individual differences in behavior might change over time, such that different individuals become more similar (convergence) or less similar (divergence) to one another. Virtually none of these investigators have suggested that convergence or divergence will continue forever, instead proposing that these patterns will be restricted to particular periods over the course of a longer study. However, to date, few empiricists have documented time-specific convergence or divergence, in part because the experimental designs and statistical methods suitable for describing these patterns are not widely known. Here, we begin by reviewing an array of influential hypotheses that predict convergence or divergence in individual differences over timescales ranging from minutes to years, and that suggest how and why such patterns are likely to change over time (e.g., divergence followed by maintenance). Then, we describe experimental designs and statistical methods that can be used to determine if (and when) individual differences converged, diverged, or were maintained at the same level at specific periods during a longitudinal study. Finally, we describe why the concepts described herein help explain the discrepancy between what theoreticians and empiricists mean when they describe the "emergence" of individual differences or personality, how they might be used to study situations in which convergence and divergence patterns alternate over time, and how they might be used to study time-specific changes in other attributes of behavior, including individual differences in intraindividual variability (predictability), or genotypic differences in behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A. Stamps
- Department of Evolution and EcologyUniversity of California, DavisDavisCaliforniaUSA
| | - Peter A. Biro
- School of Life and Environmental SciencesDeakin UniversityGeelongVictoriaAustralia
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Stamps JA, Bell AM. Combining information from parental and personal experiences: Simple processes generate diverse outcomes. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0250540. [PMID: 34255774 PMCID: PMC8277055 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250540] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2021] [Accepted: 06/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Experiences of parents and/or offspring are often assumed to affect the development of trait values in offspring because they provide information about the external environment. However, it is currently unclear how information from parental and offspring experiences might jointly affect the information-states that provide the foundation for the offspring phenotypes observed in empirical studies of developmental plasticity in response to environmental cues. We analyze Bayesian models designed to mimic fully-factorial experimental studies of trans and within- generational plasticity (TWP), in which parents, offspring, both or neither are exposed to cues from predators, to determine how different durations of cue exposure for parents and offspring, the devaluation of information from parents or the degradation of information from parents would affect offspring estimates of environmental states related to risk of predation at the end of such experiments. We show that the effects of different cue durations, the devaluation of information from parents, and the degradation of information from parents on offspring estimates are all expected to vary as a function of interactions with two other key components of information-based models of TWP: parental priors and the relative cue reliability in the different treatments. Our results suggest empiricists should expect to observe considerable variation in the patterns observed in experimental studies of TWP based on simple principles of information-updating, without needing to invoke additional assumptions about costs, tradeoffs, development constraints, the fitness consequences of different trait values, or other factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A. Stamps
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, United States of America
| | - Alison M. Bell
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A Stamps
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA
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Stamps JA, Biro PA, Mitchell DJ, Saltz JB. Bayesian updating during development predicts genotypic differences in plasticity. Evolution 2018; 72:2167-2180. [PMID: 30133698 DOI: 10.1111/evo.13585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2018] [Accepted: 08/13/2018] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
Interactions between genotypes and environments are central to evolutionary genetics, but such interactions are typically described, rather than predicted from theory. Recent Bayesian models of development generate specific predictions about genotypic differences in developmental plasticity (changes in the value of a given trait as a result of a given experience) based on genotypic differences in the value of the trait that is expressed by naïve subjects. We used these models to make a priori predictions about the effects of an aversive olfactory conditioning regime on the response of Drosophila melanogaster larvae to the odor of ethyl acetate. As predicted, across 116 genotypes initial trait values were related to plasticity. Genotypes most strongly attracted to the odor of ethyl acetate when naïve reduced their attraction scores more as a result of the aversive training regime than those less attracted to the same odor when naïve. Thus, as predicted, the variance across genotypes in attraction scores was higher before than after the shared experience. These results support predictions generated by Bayesian models of development and indicate that such models can be successfully used to investigate how variation across genotypes in information derived from ancestors combines with personal experience to differentially affect developmental plasticity in response to specific types of experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A Stamps
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, California 95616
| | - Peter A Biro
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3216, Australia
| | - David J Mitchell
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria 3216, Australia
| | - Julia B Saltz
- Department of BioSciences, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005
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Abstract
Until recently, biology lacked a framework for studying how information from genes, parental effects, and different personal experiences is combined across the lifetime to affect phenotypic development. Over the past few years, researchers have begun to build such a framework, using models that incorporate Bayesian updating to study the evolution of developmental plasticity and developmental trajectories. Here, we describe the merits of a Bayesian approach to development, review the main findings and implications of the current set of models, and describe predictions that can be tested using protocols already used by empiricists. We suggest that a Bayesian perspective affords a simple and tractable way to conceptualize, explain, and predict how information combines across the lifetime to affect development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A Stamps
- Section of Evolution and Ecology, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
| | - Willem E Frankenhuis
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Montessorilaan 3, PO Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Ord TJ, Charles GK, Palmer M, Stamps JA. Plasticity in social communication and its implications for the colonization of novel habitats. Behav Ecol 2015. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arv165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
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Stamps JA. Individual differences in behavioural plasticities. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2015; 91:534-67. [PMID: 25865135 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12186] [Citation(s) in RCA: 148] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2014] [Revised: 03/14/2015] [Accepted: 03/18/2015] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Interest in individual differences in animal behavioural plasticities has surged in recent years, but research in this area has been hampered by semantic confusion as different investigators use the same terms (e.g. plasticity, flexibility, responsiveness) to refer to different phenomena. The first goal of this review is to suggest a framework for categorizing the many different types of behavioural plasticities, describe examples of each, and indicate why using reversibility as a criterion for categorizing behavioural plasticities is problematic. This framework is then used to address a number of timely questions about individual differences in behavioural plasticities. One set of questions concerns the experimental designs that can be used to study individual differences in various types of behavioural plasticities. Although within-individual designs are the default option for empirical studies of many types of behavioural plasticities, in some situations (e.g. when experience at an early age affects the behaviour expressed at subsequent ages), 'replicate individual' designs can provide useful insights into individual differences in behavioural plasticities. To date, researchers using within-individual and replicate individual designs have documented individual differences in all of the major categories of behavioural plasticities described herein. Another important question is whether and how different types of behavioural plasticities are related to one another. Currently there is empirical evidence that many behavioural plasticities [e.g. contextual plasticity, learning rates, IIV (intra-individual variability), endogenous plasticities, ontogenetic plasticities) can themselves vary as a function of experiences earlier in life, that is, many types of behavioural plasticity are themselves developmentally plastic. These findings support the assumption that differences among individuals in prior experiences may contribute to individual differences in behavioural plasticities observed at a given age. Several authors have predicted correlations across individuals between different types of behavioural plasticities, i.e. that some individuals will be generally more plastic than others. However, empirical support for most of these predictions, including indirect evidence from studies of relationships between personality traits and plasticities, is currently sparse and equivocal. The final section of this review suggests how an appreciation of the similarities and differences between different types of behavioural plasticities may help theoreticians formulate testable models to explain the evolution of individual differences in behavioural plasticities and the evolutionary and ecological consequences of individual differences in behavioural plasticities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A Stamps
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A
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Stamps JA, Krishnan VV. Combining Information from Ancestors and Personal Experiences to Predict Individual Differences in Developmental Trajectories. Am Nat 2014; 184:647-57. [DOI: 10.1086/678116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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Abstract
Intra-genotypic variability (IGV) occurs when individuals with the same genotype, raised in the same environment and then tested under the same conditions, express different trait values. Game theoretical and bet-hedging models have suggested two ways that a single genotype might generate variable behaviour when behavioural variation is discrete rather than continuous: behavioural polyphenism (a genotype produces different types of individuals, each of which consistently expresses a different type of behaviour) or stochastic variability (a genotype produces one type of individual who randomly expresses different types of behaviour over time). We first demonstrated significant differences across 14 natural genotypes of male Drosophila melanogaster in the variability (as measured by entropy) of their microhabitat choice, in an experiment in which each fly was allowed free access to four different types of habitat. We then tested four hypotheses about ways that within-individual variability might contribute to differences across genotypes in the variability of microhabitat choice. There was no empirical support for three hypotheses (behavioural polymorphism, consistent choice, or time-based choice), nor could our results be attributed to genotypic differences in activity levels. The stochastic variability hypothesis accurately predicted the slope and the intercept of the relationship across genotypes between entropy at the individual level and entropy at the genotype level. However, our initial version of the stochastic model slightly but significantly overestimated the values of individual entropy for each genotype, pointing to specific assumptions of this model that might need to be adjusted in future studies of the IGV of microhabitat choice. This is among a handful of recent studies to document genotypic differences in behavioural IGV, and the first to explore ways that genotypic differences in within-individual variability might contribute to differences among genotypes in the predictability of their behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Julia B. Saltz
- Molecular and Computational Biology, University of Southern California
| | - V.V. Krishnan
- School of Engineering, San Francisco State University
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Ord TJ, Stamps JA, Losos JB. Convergent evolution in the territorial communication of a classic adaptive radiation: Caribbean Anolis lizards. Anim Behav 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.03.037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Stamps JA, Yang LH, Morales VM, Boundy-Mills KL. Drosophila regulate yeast density and increase yeast community similarity in a natural substrate. PLoS One 2012; 7:e42238. [PMID: 22860093 PMCID: PMC3409142 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0042238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2012] [Accepted: 07/04/2012] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Drosophila melanogaster adults and larvae, but especially larvae, had profound effects on the densities and community structure of yeasts that developed in banana fruits. Pieces of fruit exposed to adult female flies previously fed fly-conditioned bananas developed higher yeast densities than pieces of the same fruits that were not exposed to flies, supporting previous suggestions that adult Drosophila vector yeasts to new substrates. However, larvae alone had dramatic effects on yeast density and species composition. When yeast densities were compared in pieces of the same fruits assigned to different treatments, fruits that developed low yeast densities in the absence of flies developed significantly higher yeast densities when exposed to larvae. Across all of the fruits, larvae regulated yeast densities within narrow limits, as compared to a much wider range of yeast densities that developed in pieces of the same fruits not exposed to flies. Larvae also affected yeast species composition, dramatically reducing species diversity across fruits, reducing variation in yeast communities from one fruit to the next (beta diversity), and encouraging the consistent development of a yeast community composed of three species of yeast (Candida californica, C. zemplinina, and Pichia kluvyeri), all of which were palatable to larvae. Larvae excreted viable cells of these three yeast species in their fecal pools, and discouraged the growth of filamentous fungi, processes which may have contributed to their effects on the yeast communities in banana fruits. These and other findings suggest that D. melanogaster adults and their larval offspring together engage in 'niche construction', facilitating a predictable microbial environment in the fruit substrates in which the larvae live and develop.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A Stamps
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California Davis, Davis, California, United States of America.
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Stamps JA, Groothuis TGG. Developmental perspectives on personality: implications for ecological and evolutionary studies of individual differences. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2011; 365:4029-41. [PMID: 21078655 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 182] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental processes can have major impacts on the correlations in behaviour across contexts (contextual generality) and across time (temporal consistency) that are the hallmarks of animal personality. Personality can and does change: at any given age or life stage it is contingent upon a wide range of experiential factors that occurred earlier in life, from prior to conception through adulthood. We show how developmental reaction norms that describe the effects of prior experience on a given behaviour can be used to determine whether the effects of a given experience at a given age will affect contextual generality at a later age, and to illustrate how variation within individuals in developmental plasticity leads to variation in contextual generality across individuals as a function of experience. We also show why niche-picking and niche-construction, behavioural processes which allow individuals to affect their own developmental environment, can affect the contextual generality and the temporal consistency of personality. We conclude by discussing how an appreciation of developmental processes can alert behavioural ecologists studying animal personality to critical, untested assumptions that underlie their own research programmes, and outline situations in which a developmental perspective can improve studies of the functional significance and evolution of animal personality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A Stamps
- Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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Biro PA, Stamps JA. Do consistent individual differences in metabolic rate promote consistent individual differences in behavior? Trends Ecol Evol 2010; 25:653-9. [PMID: 20832898 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2010.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 496] [Impact Index Per Article: 35.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2010] [Revised: 08/05/2010] [Accepted: 08/05/2010] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Consistent individual differences (CIDs) in behavior are a widespread phenomenon in animals, but the proximate reasons for them are unresolved. We discuss evidence for the hypothesis that CIDs in energy metabolism, as reflected by resting metabolic rate (RMR), promote CIDs in behavior patterns that either provide net energy (e.g. foraging activity), and/or consume energy (e.g. courtship activity). In doing so, we provide a framework for linking together RMR, behavior, and life-history productivity. Empirical studies suggest that RMR is (a) related to the capacity to generate energy, (b) repeatable, and (c) correlated with behavioral output (e.g. aggressiveness) and productivity (e.g. growth). We conclude by discussing future research directions to clarify linkages between behavior and energy metabolism in this emerging research area.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter A Biro
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia.
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Macedonia JM, Stamps JA. Species Recognition in Anolis grahami (Sauria, Iguanidae): Evidence from Responses to Video Playbacks of Conspecific and Heterospecific Displays. Ethology 2010. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1994.tb01074.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Biro PA, Beckmann C, Stamps JA. Small within-day increases in temperature affects boldness and alters personality in coral reef fish. Proc Biol Sci 2010; 277:71-7. [PMID: 19793748 PMCID: PMC2842624 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1346] [Citation(s) in RCA: 202] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2009] [Accepted: 09/08/2009] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Consistent individual differences in behaviour, termed personality, are common in animal populations and can constrain their responses to ecological and environmental variation, such as temperature. Here, we show for the first time that normal within-daytime fluctuations in temperature of less than 3 degrees C have large effects on personality for two species of juvenile coral reef fish in both observational and manipulative experiments. On average, individual scores on three personality traits (PTs), activity, boldness and aggressiveness, increased from 2.5- to sixfold as a function of temperature. However, whereas most individuals became more active, aggressive and bold across temperature contexts (were plastic), others did not; this changed the individual rank order across temperatures and thus altered personality. In addition, correlations between PTs were consistent across temperature contexts, e.g. fish that were active at a given temperature also tended to be both bold and aggressive. These results (i) highlight the importance of very carefully controlling for temperature when studying behavioural variation among and within individuals and (ii) suggest that individual differences in energy metabolism may contribute to animal personality, given that temperature has large direct effects on metabolic rates in ectotherms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter A Biro
- Department of Environmental Science, and Institute for Water and Environmental Resource Management, University of Technology Sydney, Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia.
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Abstract
In many animals, exposure to cues in a natal habitat increases disperser preferences for those cues (natal habitat preference induction [NHPI]), but the proximate and ultimate bases for this phenomenon are obscure. We developed a Bayesian model to study how different types of experience in the natal habitat and survival to the age/stage of dispersal interact to affect a disperser's estimate of the quality of new natal-type habitats. The model predicts that the types of experience a disperser had before leaving its natal habitat will affect the attractiveness of cues from new natal-type habitats and that favorable experiences will increase the level of preference for natal-type habitats more than unfavorable experiences will decrease it. An experimental study of NHPI in Drosophila melanogaster provided with "good" and "bad" experiences in their natal habitats supports these predictions while also indicating that the effects of different types of natal experience on NHPI vary across genotypes. If habitat preferences are modulated by an individual's experience before dispersal as described in this study, then NHPI may have stronger effects on sympatric speciation, metapopulation dynamics, conservation biology, and pest management than previously supposed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A Stamps
- Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA.
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Abstract
Fights are often observed when prospective territory owners settle in patches of vacant habitat, but the function of these fights in space acquisition is obscure. This study tests two hypotheses about the effect of fights on subsequent space use patterns: first, that settlers win space by winning fights and, second, that fights encourage the establishment of mutually exclusive home ranges between opponents (i.e., "fights make neighbors"). The behavior of juvenile Anolts aeneus lizards was recorded as they established territories in patches of habitat in the field. In support of the fights-make-neighbors hypothesis, opponents whose last aggressive interaction was a fight were six times more likely to have mutually exclusive home ranges at the end of the settlement period than were otherwise equivalent dyads whose last encounter was a chase. Contra the hypothesis that settlers win space by winning fights, most last fights ended in a draw, and there was no discernable relationship between the outcome of last fights and the subsequent space use of the contestants. These and previous analyses of settlement behavior in this species suggest that fights during the settlement period encourage the formation of symmetrical social and spatial relationships between neighboring settlers.
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Affiliation(s)
- J A Stamps
- Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA
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Biro PA, Stamps JA. Are animal personality traits linked to life-history productivity? Trends Ecol Evol 2008; 23:361-8. [PMID: 18501468 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2008.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 706] [Impact Index Per Article: 44.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2007] [Revised: 04/11/2008] [Accepted: 04/14/2008] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Animal personality traits such as boldness, activity and aggressiveness have been described for many animal species. However, why some individuals are consistently bolder or more active than others, for example, is currently obscure. Given that life-history tradeoffs are common and known to promote inter-individual differences in behavior, we suggest that consistent individual differences in animal personality traits can be favored when those traits contribute to consistent individual differences in productivity (growth and/or fecundity). A survey of empirical studies indicates that boldness, activity and/or aggressiveness are positively related to food intake rates, productivity and other life-history traits in a wide range of taxa. Our conceptual framework sets the stage for a closer look at relationships between personality traits and life-history traits in animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter A Biro
- Department of Environmental Science and Institute for Water and Environmental Resource Management, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia.
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Abstract
During natal dispersal, young animals leave their natal area and search for a new area to live. In species in which individuals inhabit different types of habitat, experience with a natal habitat may increase the probability that a disperser will select the same type of habitat post-dispersal (natal habitat preference induction or NHPI). Despite considerable interest in the ecological and the evolutionary implications of NHPI, we lack empirical evidence that it occurs in nature. Here we show that dispersing brush mice (Peromyscus boylii) are more likely to search and settle within their natal habitat type than expected based on habitat availability. These results document the occurrence of NHPI in nature and highlight the relevance of experience-generated habitat preferences for ecological and evolutionary processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen E Mabry
- Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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Abstract
Several important problems in ecology, evolution and conservation biology are affected by habitat selection in dispersing animals. Experience in the natal habitat has long been considered a potential source of variation in the habitat preferences displayed when dispersers select a post-dispersal habitat. However, the taxonomic breadth of this phenomenon is underappreciated, in part because partially overlapping, taxon-specific definitions in the literature have discouraged communication. Here, we explore the phenomenon of natal habitat preference induction (NHPI) and demonstrate that NHPI has been observed in a broad range of animal taxa. We consider the potential adaptive significance of NHPI, identify implications of its occurrence for problems in evolution, ecology and conservation biology, and encourage further study of this phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy M Davis
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California at Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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Abstract
Extensive research over the last few decades has revealed that many acoustically communicating animals compensate for the masking effect of background noise by changing the structure of their signals. Familiar examples include birds using acoustic properties that enhance the transmission of vocalizations in noisy habitats. Here, we show that the effects of background noise on communication signals are not limited to the acoustic modality, and that visual noise from windblown vegetation has an equally important influence on the production of dynamic visual displays. We found that two species of Puerto Rican lizard, Anolis cristatellus and A. gundlachi, increase the speed of body movements used in territorial signalling to apparently improve communication in visually 'noisy' environments of rapidly moving vegetation. This is the first evidence that animals change how they produce dynamic visual signals when communicating in noisy motion habitats. Taken together with previous work on acoustic communication, our results show that animals with very different sensory ecologies can face similar environmental constraints and adopt remarkably similar strategies to overcome these constraints.
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Affiliation(s)
- Terry J Ord
- Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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Abstract
Consistent individual differences in boldness, reactivity, aggressiveness, and other 'personality traits' in animals are stable within individuals but vary across individuals, for reasons which are currently obscure. Here, I suggest that consistent individual differences in growth rates encourage consistent individual differences in behavior patterns that contribute to growth-mortality tradeoffs. This hypothesis predicts that behavior patterns that increase both growth and mortality rates (e.g. foraging under predation risk, aggressive defense of feeding territories) will be positively correlated with one another across individuals, that selection for high growth rates will increase mean levels of potentially risky behavior across populations, and that within populations, faster-growing individuals will take more risks in foraging contexts than slower-growing individuals. Tentative empirical support for these predictions suggests that a growth-mortality perspective may help explain some of the consistent individual differences in behavioral traits that have been reported in fish, amphibians, reptiles, and other animals with indeterminate growth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A Stamps
- University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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Abstract
The silver spoon effect in the context of habitat selection occurs when dispersers in good condition are more likely to settle in high-quality habitats than dispersers in poor condition. Positive relationships between disperser condition and the quality of post-dispersal habitats are predicted by at least two non-exclusive ultimate hypotheses. The competition hypothesis assumes that a disperser's condition affects its chances of competing for space or joining an established group after arriving at a high-quality habitat, while the search hypothesis assumes that a disperser's condition affects its selectivity, and hence its chances of accepting a lower-quality habitat when it is searching for a new habitat. Thus far, silver spoon effects in the context of habitat selection have been reported in only a handful of species (several birds and marine invertebrates), but this study suggests that they may be relatively common in particular species and situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy A Stamps
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
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Hanley KA, Elliott ML, Stamps JA. Chemical Recognition of Familiar vs. Unfamiliar Conspecifics by Juvenile Iguanid Lizards, Ctenosaura similis. Ethology 1999. [DOI: 10.1046/j.1439-0310.1999.00448.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Abstract
We released juvenile Anolis aeneus lizards into vacant patches of habitat in the field and observed as they established territories. Individuals settling in the presence of few competitors obtained more exclusive home ranges than did individuals settling at higher densities. When settling at high densities, juveniles that eventually attained high social status fought and chased their opponents more frequently than did juveniles that were subordinate to other residents at the end of the settlement period. With respect to predicting an individual's final status and space use, however, the fact that it fought other settlers was more important than the outcome of those fights. Results from this and previous studies in this series are consistent with a general model of territory establishment that includes assumptions about the value of familiar space, the costs of aggressive interactions and the ability of settlers to form predictable social relationships with one another.Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- JA Stamps
- Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California at Davis
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Muller KL, Stamps JA, Krishnan VV, Willits NH. The Effects of Conspecific Attraction and Habitat Quality on Habitat Selection in Territorial Birds (Troglodytes Aedon). Am Nat 1997; 150:650-61. [PMID: 18811306 DOI: 10.1086/286087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 170] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- K L Muller
- Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA
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Abstract
Estimates of asymptotic size are especially useful for comparative studies of taxonomic groups in which animals mature at small sizes relative to their final asymptotic sizes. The largest individuals per sample can provide reasonable estimates of asymptotic size if three conditions are met: 1) at least some adults in a population are near their final asymptotic size, 2) samples of a reasonable size are likely to contain a 'largest individual' that is near the average asymptotic size for the members of its sex, and 3) the coefficient of variation in asymptotic size is small for the members of each sex. In the current study, we show that all three of these conditions are met for one species of Anolis lizards (A. limifrons). For a series of samples from the genus Anolis, the largest individual per sample produces estimates of asymptotic size that are virtually identical to those produced by fitting field data on growth rates to nonlinear growth equations. These results suggest that the largest individual method can provide reasonable estimates of asymptotic size for the members of this genus, and imply that this method may also be useful for estimating asymptotic sizes in other taxa that satisfy the criteria listed above.
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Affiliation(s)
- J A Stamps
- Department of Zoology, University of California Davis, 95616, Davis, CA, USA
| | - R M Andrews
- Department of Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 24061, Blacksburg, VA, USA
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Schneider SS, Stamps JA, Gary NE. The vibration dance of the honey bee. II. The effects of foraging success on daily patterns of vibration activity. Anim Behav 1986. [DOI: 10.1016/s0003-3472(86)80106-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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