Social contexts and behavioural decisions in fishes

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.