The socio-sexual environment and social group choice by males

社会性环境与男性的社会群体选择

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-04033
• 负责人: Godin, JeanGuy
• 金额: $ 2.33万
• 依托单位: Carleton University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=684466
• 关键词: socio; sexual; environment; social; group

Within populations, individual animals (including humans) differ to varying degrees in their behaviour and reproductive success. Such variation is necessary for the action of selection and thus evolution. Despite recent advances, much work remains to elucidate the mechanisms generating and maintaining biological trait variation, and the consequences of the latter for the processes of selection and evolution. Towards meeting this challenge, my research programme explores how and to what extent social associations among individual animals structures their societies and, in turn, how the social environment influences their behaviour. Socially-mediated behavioural decisions can affect social and sexual selection and evolutionary dynamics within populations.******The proposed research will investigate whether and how males select their social environment and the roles that ecological (e.g. predation risk) and demographic factors (e.g. group size and sex ratio) may play in such social behavioural decisions. How the social environment shapes the evolution of social behaviour is currently of considerable interest in the fields of evolutionary and behavioural ecology. We will use a small tropical fish, the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata), as a model study system to: (i) characterize the nature of social group formation (fusion) and break-up (fission) within guppy societies in different natural environments in Trinidad that vary in predation risk and demographics, (ii) test for social partner choice and non-random social associations based on sexual attractiveness among males, and (iii) investigate whether social group choice in males is driven by mating opportunity or avoidance of predation, or an interaction between both. The guppy is an ideal species for the proposed research because it is a highly social species that lives in fission-fusion societies comprised of highly dynamic, mixed-sex groups of individuals, it exhibits a promiscuous mating system and mutual mate choice, and males are more mobile than females, moving frequently between groups in search of mates, among other reasons. Such fission-fusion societies are highly suitable systems for examining ecological and demographic correlates of sociality because they respond rapidly to changing conditions.******The proposed research will advance our understanding of how and to what extent social associations among males, and their choice of social groups, are mediated by their socio-sexual environment. This work is important because of its implications for sexual selection and social evolution, and more broadly for evolution of cooperation, social networks, and the social transmission of information and diseases within populations. It will train students in research methodology and prepare them for professional careers in education, science research and policy, environmental science, and health sciences, for example.*****

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。这种变异是选择作用所必需的，因而也是进化所必需的。尽管最近的进展，许多工作仍然要阐明的机制产生和维持生物性状变异，后者的选择和进化过程的后果。为了迎接这一挑战，我的研究计划探讨如何以及在何种程度上个体动物之间的社会协会结构的社会，反过来，社会环境如何影响他们的行为。社会介导的行为决定可以影响群体内的社会和性选择以及进化动态。拟议的研究将调查男性是否以及如何选择他们的社会环境，以及生态（例如捕食风险）和人口因素（例如群体大小和性别比例）在这种社会行为决策中可能发挥的作用。社会环境如何塑造社会行为的进化是目前进化和行为生态学领域相当感兴趣的问题。我们将使用一种小型热带鱼，特立尼达孔雀鱼（Poecilia reticulata），作为模型研究系统：（i）描述特立尼达岛不同自然环境中孔雀鱼社会内社会群体形成（融合）和分裂（裂变）的性质，这些自然环境在捕食风险和人口统计学方面各不相同，（ii）测试基于男性性吸引力的社会伴侣选择和非随机社会协会，以及（iii）调查雄性的社会群体选择是否是由交配机会或避免捕食，或两者之间的相互作用驱动的。孔雀鱼是拟议研究的理想物种，因为它是一种高度社会化的物种，生活在由高度动态的混合性别个体群体组成的裂变融合社会中，它表现出混杂的交配系统和相互的配偶选择，雄性比雌性更移动的，经常在群体之间移动以寻找配偶，以及其他原因。这种裂变-融合社会非常适合研究社会性的生态和人口相关性，因为它们对变化的条件反应迅速。拟议中的研究将促进我们的理解，如何以及在何种程度上男性之间的社会协会，他们的社会群体的选择，介导的社会性环境。这项工作之所以重要，是因为它对性选择和社会进化，以及更广泛地对合作、社交网络、信息和疾病在人群中的社会传播的进化具有影响。它将培养学生的研究方法，并为他们在教育，科学研究和政策，环境科学和健康科学的职业生涯做好准备。