scholarly journals Physiology modulates social flexibility and collective behaviour in equids and other large ungulates

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1727) ◽  
pp. 20160241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew S. Gersick ◽  
Daniel I. Rubenstein
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Behavioural Plasticity ◽  
Structural Flexibility ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Extant Species

Though morphologically very similar, equids across the extant species occupy ecological niches that are surprisingly non-overlapping. Occupancy of these distinct niches appears related to subtle physiological and behavioural adaptations which, in turn, correspond to significant differences in the social behaviours and emergent social systems characterizing the different species. Although instances of intraspecific behavioural variation in equids demonstrate that the same body plan can support a range of social structures, each of these morphologically similar species generally shows robust fidelity to its evolved social system. The pattern suggests a subtle relationship between physiological phenotypes and behavioural flexibility. While environmental conditions can vary widely within relatively short temporal or spatial scales, physiological changes and changes to the behaviours that regulate physiological processes, are constrained to longer cycles of adaptation. Physiology is then the limiting variable in the interaction between ecological variation and behavioural and socio-structural flexibility. Behavioural and socio-structural flexibility, in turn, will generate important feedbacks that will govern physiological function, thus creating a coupled web of interactions that can lead to changes in individual and collective behaviour. Longitudinal studies of equid and other large-bodied ungulate populations under environmental stress, such as those discussed here, may offer the best opportunities for researchers to examine, in real time, the interplay between individual behavioural plasticity, socio-structural flexibility, and the physiological and genetic changes that together produce adaptive change. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals’.

scholarly journals Maximising the Edges of Natural and Human Systems: The Case for Sociotones

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7203
Author(s):  
May East
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Biological Communities ◽  
Applied Ecology ◽  
Multiple Spatial Scales ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Over Time

In many fields of fundamental and applied ecology, the transition or edge between two distinct biological communities is known as ‘ecotone’. The ecotone concept was first introduced in the early 20th century, describing the edge between two ecological systems which disappear in a transition zone but in opposite directions. This paper examines the evolution of the concept and its different applications over time. It explores the characteristics of ecotones as biodiverse enriched ecological niches occurring at multiple spatial scales. The paper goes further by proposing the concept of sociotone or social systems in tension, first by postulating a series of principles through which many possible interpretations may arise and secondly, by describing the societal interface where diverse worldviews, intentions and experiences meet. The concept is tested against a territory of social tensions between newcomers and stakeholders in Sicily providing evidence of a field of dynamic socio-economic transformations and prospects. The paper concludes by positioning sociotone as a possible framework to realise the systemic potential of multicultural globalised societies.

scholarly journals Aspects, Including Pitfalls, of Temporal Sampling of Flying Insects, with Special Reference to Aphids

Insects ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Loxdale
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Rare And Endangered Species ◽  
Temporal Sampling ◽  
Flying Insects ◽  
Rare And Endangered ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Similar Vein

Since the advent and widespread use of high-resolution molecular markers in the late 1970s, it is now well established that natural populations of insects are not necessarily homogeneous genetically and show variations at different spatial scales due to a variety of reasons, including hybridization/introgression events. In a similar vein, populations of insects are not necessarily homogenous in time, either over the course of seasons or even within a single season. This of course has profound consequences for surveys examining, for whatever reason/s, the temporal population patterns of insects, especially flying insects as mostly discussed here. In the present article, the topics covered include climate and climate change; changes in ecological niches due to changes in available hosts, i.e., essentially, adaptation events; hybridization influencing behaviour–host shifts; infection by pathogens and parasites/parasitoids; habituation to light, sound and pheromone lures; chromosomal/genetic changes affecting physiology and behaviour; and insecticide resistance. If such phenomena—i.e., aspects and pitfalls—are not considered during spatio-temporal study programmes, which is even more true in the light of the recent discovery of morphologically similar/identical cryptic species, then the conclusions drawn in terms of the efforts to combat pest insects or conserve rare and endangered species may be in error and hence end in failure.

scholarly journals Weathering the impacts of climate change

2020 ◽  
pp. 227-238
Author(s):  
Brian Helmuth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Heat Budget ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Physiological Tolerance ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
Sessile Organisms

Ectothermic organisms experience their local environments in ways that humans can have difficulty conceptualizing. Physics-based (ecomechanical) approaches, for example heat budget models, can lend insights into how an organism’s very local environmental conditions (microclimate) can drive niche-level conditions such as body temperature; these in turn drive physiological processes. Quantitative methods also allow insights into the temporal and spatial scales that may ultimately determine responses to larger-scale environmental change. For example, for small, sessile organisms, microhabitats such as crevices in rocks may provide microrefugia that allow survival during heat waves. As a result, larger-scale recovery following heat waves (rescue effects) may ultimately be influenced by much smaller-scale processes. Ecomechanics techniques also facilitate the use of interventions such as shading that can maintain environmental conditions within physiological tolerance levels.

scholarly journals Ecological specialisation and evolutionary reticulation in extant Hyaenidae

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M V Westbury ◽  
Diana Le Duc ◽  
David A. Duchêne ◽  
Arunkumar Krishnan ◽  
Stefan Prost ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Spotted Hyena ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Slow Decline ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Phylogenetic Discordance ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Olfactory Receptor Genes ◽  
Striped Hyena

AbstractDuring the Miocene, Hyaenidae was a highly diverse family of Carnivora that has since been severely reduced to four extant genera, each of which contains only a single species. These species include the bone-cracking spotted, striped, and brown hyenas, and the specialised insectivorous aardwolf. Previous genome studies have analysed the evolutionary histories of the spotted and brown hyenas, but little is known about the remaining two species. Moreover, the genomic underpinnings of scavenging and insectivory, defining traits of the extant species, remain elusive. To tackle these questions, we generated an aardwolf genome and analysed it together with those from the other three species. We provide new insights into the evolutionary relationships between the species, the genomic underpinnings of their scavenging and insectivorous lifestyles, and their respective genetic diversities and demographic histories. High levels of phylogenetic discordance within the family suggest gene flow between the aardwolf lineage and the ancestral brown/striped hyena lineage. Genes related to immunity and digestion in the bone-cracking hyenas and craniofacial development in the aardwolf showed the strongest signals of selection in their respective lineages, suggesting putative key adaptations to carrion or termite feeding. We also found a family-wide expansion in olfactory receptor genes suggesting that an acute sense of smell was a key early adaptation for the Hyaenidae family. Finally, we report very low levels of genetic diversity within the brown and striped hyenas despite no signs of inbreeding, which we putatively link to their similarly slow decline in Neover the last ∼2 million years. We found much higher levels of genetic diversity in both the spotted hyena and aardwolf and more stable population sizes through time. Taken together, these findings highlight how ecological specialisation can impact the evolutionary history, demographics, and adaptive genetic changes of a lineage.

Size overlap in intertidal decapod communities along the chilean coast

2020 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricio De los Ríos-Escalante ◽  
Guillermo Figueroa-Muñoz ◽  
Marco A. Retamal ◽  
Rolando Vega-Aguayo ◽  
Carlos Esse
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Null Model ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Chilean Coast ◽  
Niche Specialization ◽  
High Diversity

The intertidal crustaceans on the Chilean coast are characterized by high diversity and niche specialization. The present study applied a size overlap null model for intertidal decapod communities at four different sites on the Chilean coast. The results revealed that there is a size overlap for the four sites, though body size is significantly different for each location. This means that the reported species would share their ecological niches. The results agree with the first classic environmental descriptions for Chilean intertidal decapods at a local scale and support the observations for similar species on the southern Pacific and southern Atlantic coasts.

scholarly journals Can we identify general architectural principles that impact the collective behaviour of both human and animal systems?

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1753) ◽  
pp. 20180253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Penn ◽  
J. Scott Turner
Keyword(s):  
Niche Construction ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Architectural Principles ◽  
Animal Societies ◽  
Research Architecture

The search for general common principles that unify disciplines is a longstanding challenge for interdisciplinary research. Architecture has always been an interdisciplinary pursuit, combining engineering, art and culture. The rise of biomimetic architecture adds to the interdisciplinary span. We discuss the similarities and differences among human and animal societies in how architecture influences their collective behaviour. We argue that the emergence of a fully biomimetic architecture involves breaking down what we call ‘pernicious dualities’ that have permeated our discourse for decades, artificial divisions between species, between organism and environment, between genotype and phenotype, and in the case of architecture, the supposed duality between the built environment and its builders. We suggest that niche construction theory may serve as a starting point for unifying our thinking across disciplines, taxa and spatial scales. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour’.

High niche overlap between two successfully coexisting pairs of Lake Malawi cichlid fishes

2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher H. Martin ◽  
Martin J. Genner
Keyword(s):  
Resource Availability ◽  
Niche Overlap ◽  
Lake Malawi ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Dietary Overlap ◽  
Resource Abundance ◽  
Species Pairs ◽  
Foraging Rate

Many species in high-diversity assemblages appear to coexist in similar ecological niches. It has been proposed that interspecific resource partitioning in these assemblages may only occur during periods of resource scarcity. We tested this hypothesis by measuring resource abundance, dietary overlap, foraging rate, and territoriality in a Lake Malawi rock cichlid assemblage over a period of 1 year. Our study examined two pairs of morphologically similar species, with each pair comprising one native species and one invader species that has successfully established after being translocated from another region of the lake. All four species changed their diet and foraging rate in response to seasonal variation in resource abundance. However, dietary overlap within both species pairs remained high in all seasons and was not influenced by resource availability. Similarly, territoriality did not decline during periods of low resource availability, suggesting no decrease in the strength of interspecific competition. These data suggest that these species pairs are successfully coexisting despite substantial niche overlap during resource scarcity. Thus, the coexistence of species within this radiation may not depend on the evolution of divergent resource use patterns.

scholarly journals Evolutionary transition from blood feeding to obligate nonbiting in a mosquito

2017 ◽  
Vol 115 (5) ◽  
pp. 1009-1014 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Bradshaw ◽  
Joshua Burkhart ◽  
John K. Colbourne ◽  
Rudyard Borowczak ◽  
Jacqueline Lopez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Meal ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Blood Feeding ◽  
Evolutionary Transition ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Wyeomyia Smithii ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Differential Gene ◽  
Vector Borne

The spread of blood-borne pathogens by mosquitoes relies on their taking a blood meal; if there is no bite, there is no disease transmission. Although many species of mosquitoes never take a blood meal, identifying genes that distinguish blood feeding from obligate nonbiting is hampered by the fact that these different lifestyles occur in separate, genetically incompatible species. There is, however, one unique extant species with populations that share a common genetic background but blood feed in one region and are obligate nonbiters in the rest of their range: Wyeomyia smithii. Contemporary blood-feeding and obligate nonbiting populations represent end points of divergence between fully interfertile southern and northern populations. This divergence has undoubtedly resulted in genetic changes that are unrelated to blood feeding, and the challenge is to winnow out the unrelated genetic factors to identify those related specifically to the evolutionary transition from blood feeding to obligate nonbiting. Herein, we determine differential gene expression resulting from directional selection on blood feeding within a polymorphic population to isolate genetic differences between blood feeding and obligate nonbiting. We show that the evolution of nonbiting has resulted in a greatly reduced metabolic investment compared with biting populations, a greater reliance on opportunistic metabolic pathways, and greater reliance on visual rather than olfactory sensory input. W. smithii provides a unique starting point to determine if there are universal nonbiting genes in mosquitoes that could be manipulated as a means to control vector-borne disease.

scholarly journals Serine protease inhibitors and human wellbeing interplay: new insights for old friends

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Héla Mkaouar ◽  
Nizar Akermi ◽  
Aicha Kriaa ◽  
Anne-Laure Abraham ◽  
Amin Jablaoui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Serine Protease ◽  
Protease Inhibitors ◽  
Structural Data ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Serine Protease Inhibitors ◽  
New Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
And Function

Serine Protease Inhibitors (Serpins) control tightly regulated physiological processes and their dysfunction is associated to various diseases. Thus, increasing interest is given to these proteins as new therapeutic targets. Several studies provided functional and structural data about human serpins. By comparison, only little knowledge regarding bacterial serpins exists. Through the emergence of metagenomic studies, many bacterial serpins were identified from numerous ecological niches including the human gut microbiota. The origin, distribution and function of these proteins remain to be established. In this report, we shed light on the key role of human and bacterial serpins in health and disease. Moreover, we analyze their function, phylogeny and ecological distribution. This review highlights the potential use of bacterial serpins to set out new therapeutic approaches.

scholarly journals Relationships between taxonomic and functional diversity: insights into assembly processes

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doriane Stagnol ◽  
Lise Bacouillard ◽  
Dominique Davoult
Keyword(s):  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Rocky Shore ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Marine Habitats ◽  
Ecological Redundancy ◽  
And Function

Among the potential indicators of biodiversity, those based on the functional traits of species are interesting because they measure the aspects of diversity that potentially affect community assembly and function. However, trait-based approaches are still rarely considered and little is known about the degree to which taxonomic diversity (TD) and functional diversity (FD) are correlated. Yet, this relationship is thought to depend on the extent of ecological redundancy within the assemblage, i.e. the number of taxonomically distinct species that exhibit similar ecological functions. In this study, we characterized taxonomic and functional diversity within and between two marine habitats (rocky shore vs mudflats) under human-induced disturbances. Models were also used to test whether the relationship between TD and FD differed according to the indices used to characterize them. We found little effect of human disturbance on the shape of the TD-FD relationship, whereas communities of the mudflat appeared to be less redundant than those of rocky shore. This could be explained by the assembly rules of ecosystems: biotic filtering (competition and resource partitioning) reduces redundancy by selecting for functionally dissimilar species, whereas abiotic filtering increases redundancy by selecting for similar species sharing adaptations to a particular environment. The rocky shore environment is characterized by heterogeneity that allows the formation of distinct ecological niches that can be colonized by similar species: the abiotic filtering does not limit the redundancy permitted by habitat. Conversely, in the more homogeneous environment of mudflat, the biotic filter mitigates redundancy. Trait-mediated abiotic filtering appears to play an important role in community assembly in complex habitats, whereas the relative importance of competitive exclusion appears to be greater in homogeneous habitats.

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