Behavioral types, social plasticity and the effects of variation in social situations on sexual selection

行为类型、社会可塑性以及社会情境变化对性选择的影响

• 批准号: 0951232
• 负责人: Andrew Sih
• 金额: $ 12.5万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-01 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0951232&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Behavioral; types; social; plasticity; effects

A major issue in modern ecology, evolution and behavior for all organisms, including humans, is to understand factors that explain why some individuals have higher mating and reproductive success than others. What traits (e.g., behaviors or morphological characters) make some individuals more successful than others, and how might these key traits differ depending on the social situation? This project provides a new framework for quantifying how differences among individuals in behavioral type (or personality; e.g. boldness, aggressiveness, social flexibility) interacts with variations in social situation (e.g., group size, sex ratio, mix of personalities and patterns of social interaction within the group) to determine individual behaviors, group social dynamics and mating patterns. To exemplify and refine the new framework a model system that is ideal for studies of mating patterns is used, namely the stream water strider, Aquarius remigis. These animals mate frequently and are unusually easy to observe. The experimental approach involves repeated observations of the behavior of male and female water striders in semi-natural streams in a range of experimentally determined social situations. Based on preliminary work, the results are expected to show that individual variation in 'social skill' (the ability to choose good social situations, appropriate mating partners and the ability to respond effectively to those partners) will have major impacts on mating success. Although anecdotes suggest that social skill is crucial for success in humans and other animals, this project will provide a new, statistically sophisticated, quantitative framework to scientifically study this hypothesis in animals in general, including humans. Previous work conducted by the investigator on this basic topic has been widely cited in scientific journals, and widely covered by popular and scientific media (newspapers, magazines, radio). The project will train several Ph. D. students and undergraduates (including women and minorities) in modern behavioral, experimental and statistical methods.

现代生态学、进化和包括人类在内的所有生物行为的一个主要问题是理解为什么一些个体比其他个体具有更高的交配和繁殖成功率的因素。 哪些特征（例如，行为或形态特征）使一些人比其他人更成功，这些关键特征如何根据社会环境而有所不同？ 该项目提供了一个新的框架，用于量化个体行为类型（或个性;例如大胆，侵略性，社会灵活性）之间的差异如何与社会情境（例如，群体规模、性别比例、个性混合和群体内的社会互动模式）来确定个体行为、群体社会动态和交配模式。 为了验证和完善新的框架，使用了一个模型系统，这是理想的交配模式的研究，即溪流水的strider，Aquarius remigis。这些动物经常交配，而且非常容易观察。 实验方法包括在一系列实验确定的社会情况下，在半自然的溪流中重复观察男性和女性水的行为。 根据初步工作，结果预计将表明，在“社会技能”（选择良好的社会情况，适当的交配伙伴和有效地应对这些合作伙伴的能力）的个体差异将有重大影响交配成功。 尽管有轶事表明，社会技能对人类和其他动物的成功至关重要，但该项目将提供一个新的、统计复杂的定量框架，以科学地研究包括人类在内的一般动物的这一假设。 研究者以前就这一基本主题开展的工作已被科学期刊广泛引用，并被大众和科学媒体（报纸、杂志、广播）广泛报道。 该项目将培养多名博士。学生和本科生（包括妇女和少数民族）在现代行为，实验和统计方法。