Social contexts and behavioural decisions in fishes

在种群中，个体动物（包括人类）在行为和繁殖成功方面存在不同程度的差异。 尽管最近取得了进展，许多工作仍然要阐明产生和维持这种变化的机制，以及后者对选择和进化过程的影响。 为了迎接这一挑战，目前提出的研究目标在短期内，以确定在何种程度上社会背景（社会因素）影响的行为决定的个人生活在社会群体。 更具体地说，我建议调查某些重要社会因素对以下方面的潜在影响：（i）雌性复制观察到的其他雌性的择偶倾向（即配偶选择复制行为），从而对性选择的强度，（二）个体间特殊社会联系的形成和维持，以及这种联系对自然群体中社交网络的影响，性选择的强度，以及（iii）冒险行为（即“大胆”），如通过探索新环境和接近捕食者的倾向来衡量，以及大胆与个体适应性相关因素之间的关系（例如生长率）。我将在实验室和现场使用一些模式鱼种以及实验和比较方法，测试假设的上下文依赖的行为，主要是基于当代的性选择，社会学习，和行为综合征理论。 拟议的研究将有助于更全面地了解自然选择和性选择是如何通过社会因素介导的，以及它们如何相互作用，以塑造行为和维持人口内的行为变化。 因此，这项研究将进一步深入了解动物行为演变的过程。

Within populations, individual animals (including humans) differ to varying degrees in their behaviour and reproductive success.  Despite recent advances, much work remains to elucidate the mechanisms generating and maintaining such variation, and the consequences of the latter for the processes of selection and evolution.  Towards meeting this challenge, the current proposed research aims in the short term to ascertain the extent to which social context (social factors) influences the behavioural decisions of individuals that live in social groups.  More specifically, I propose to investigate the potential influences of certain important social factors on: (i) the tendency of females to copy the observed mate choice of other females (i.e. mate-choice copying behaviour) and thereby on the intensity of sexual selection, (ii) the formation and maintenance of particular social associations among individuals and the implications of such associations for social networks in natural populations and for the intensity of sexual selection, and (iii) risk-taking behaviour (i.e. "boldness"), as measured by tendency to explore novel environments and approach predators, and the relationships between boldness and correlates of individual fitness (e.g. growth rate).I will use a number of model fish species and the experimental and comparative approaches, in both the laboratory and field, to test hypotheses about context-dependent behaviour that are based mainly on contemporary sexual selection, social learning, and behavioural syndrome theories.  The proposed research will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how natural and sexual selection are mediated by social factors and how they interact to shape behaviour and maintain variation in behaviour within populations.  As such, this research will provide further insights into the processes by which animal behaviour evolves.