FOR 1232: Reduction of Phenotypic Plasticity in Behaviour by Early Experience: Functional Consequences of an Adaptive Mechanism?

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The interaction of genetic and environmental factors generates a reaction norm, which allows adaptive integration of environmental information into the phenotype. For most traits - including behaviour - phenotypic plasticity decreases strongly during ontogeny. It has often been postulated that behaviour is a pace maker of evolution due to its inherent plasticity, but it has not been investigated in much detail how early ontogeny limits adult plasticity. In an explicitly evolutionary context, our Research Unit will concentrate on studying how adult behavioural traits result as a consequence of different social and foraging conditions during early ontogeny. Our approach emphasises that plasticity is an adaptive mechanism building the adult behavioural phenotype during ontogeny. We will investigate the ontogenetic response to relevant ecological factors with an explicit focus on fitness effects of trait adjustments. We approach the problem in a comparative way concentrating on a few species from different taxa (mammals, birds, insects) for which we have massive prior experience. Addressing the issue by asking similar, conceptually closely related questions across projects on animals differing widely in life history traits should allow to extract generalities with regard to (1) the time of information uptake and phenotype change, (2) the kind of changes that can be induced in important behavioural and life history parameters and (3) the fit of such changes to the ontogenetic conditions experienced earlier and their adaptive value (i.e. costs and benefits).