The Consistency of Behavioral Plasticity Across Different Selective Contexts.

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Animals often benefit from adjusting their behavior to environmental conditions, and these responses can be rapid. Yet, individuals often differ in the degree to which they make adjustments (i.e., plasticity of their traits). For example, by reducing its activity when a predator is detected, an individual may be less likely to be detected. For this study, the investigators will assess behavioral plasticity in four contexts: general activity, foraging behavior, competitive behavior, and courting behavior. The overarching goal is to test whether individuals that show greater plasticity in one environmental context also show greater plasticity in others. To measure response differences, individual swordtail fish will be tested both in the presence and absence of a predator. Swordtail fish are a model for melanoma research and their behavior has been studied for 50+ years. Because an animal's size can affect the costs and benefits of expressing particular behaviors, size should also affect plasticity patterns. A single gene largely influences swordtail size, and small males show greater plasticity in some contexts than large males (e.g., in competitive behavior). As a genetic basis of size differences has been identified, this is an ideal system for the proposed work.Virtually nothing is known about whether individuals that are more plastic in one environmental context are also more plastic in other environmental contexts. Yet, such information is essential for understanding why individuals respond in different ways to environmental change. As the extent to which plasticity can be individually optimized and how plasticity operates in different contexts is not yet known, this work promises to make an important contribution to our understanding of behavioral plasticity. This project will also provide training for graduate students, opportunities for undergraduates to gain an intensive introduction to the scientific process, and outreach activities targeting K-12 students.