The reach of culture into the evolutionary biology of whales

文化对鲸鱼进化生物学的影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-04291
• 负责人: Whitehead, Hal
• 金额: $ 4.74万
• 依托单位: Dalhousie University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=737538
• 关键词: reach; culture; into; evolutionary; biology

Culture-behaviour or information transmitted by social learning and shared within groups-is a system of inheritance whereby information moves from one animal to another. In common with genes, culture evolves, and as it does so can influence ecological systems and genetic evolution. My research programme strives to trace the reach of culture into the lives and evolution of whales and dolphins, a group for which culture is particularly significant. I concentrate on the large toothed whales as their matrilineally-based and hierarchically-structured social systems promote the evolution of group-specific cultures, which are accessible for study. I lead 20-30 year-long term field studies on three species--the sperm whale, pilot whale and northern bottlenose whale--in which we collect and link individual photo-identification, acoustic, behavioural, genetic and other data. Using the data from these field projects, we will examine the reach of culture into evolutionary biology.  My primary study species is the sperm whale. Our research in the Caribbean provides individual-, dyadic-, and social-unit-level profiles of social relationships, vocalization repertoires and kinship, whereas in the Pacific we have ocean-scale data. Sperm whales communicate using codas, stereotyped patterns of clicks.  Dialects of these codas characterize clans, large-scale socio-cultural entities with overlapping distributions but clan-specific behaviour.  These clans are our primary avenue to whale culture. We will plot the geographical distributions of the clans at scales ranging from the eastern Caribbean Sea to globally, assessing overlap and avoidance among clans in different oceans. Within clans, we will measure the rates of change in overall repertoire, as well as in the structure of particular coda types. Then, we will ask whether dialects are more constrained where clan overlaps are greater, indicating that the dialects function as symbolic markers of clan identity. Experimental playbacks of codas characteristic of different clans will allow us to test this hypothesis. If clans differ in their rates of dialect evolution, this indicates that higher-level cultural processes, such as conformity, vary between clans. Using a range of cultural behaviour in addition to coda dialects, we will also assess whether pairs of clans in the Pacific and Atlantic possess similar suites of characteristic behaviour, indicating parallel patterns of cultural evolution. The proposed research is extremely original; it addresses completely novel areas of enquiry, including parallel cultural evolution, and hierarchies of cultural identity. It uses and develops innovative methodology such as dynamic social network analysis and playback technology. The significance of non-human culture to ecology and evolution is increasingly being appreciated, as is its role in considerations of management and conservation, both within Canada and internationally.

文化——通过社会学习传播并在群体内共享的行为或信息——是一种遗传系统，信息通过这种系统从一个动物传递到另一个动物。与基因一样，文化也在进化，因此它可以影响生态系统和基因进化。我的研究计划致力于追踪文化对鲸鱼和海豚的生活和进化的影响，文化对这一群体尤为重要。我专注于大型齿鲸，因为它们的母系基础和等级结构的社会系统促进了群体特定文化的进化，这是可以研究的。我对抹香鲸、领航鲸和北方宽吻鲸这三个物种进行了长达20-30年的实地研究，收集并联系了个体的照片识别、声学、行为、基因和其他数据。利用这些野外项目的数据，我们将研究文化对进化生物学的影响。我主要研究的物种是抹香鲸。我们在加勒比地区的研究提供了个体、二元和社会单位层面的社会关系、发声库和亲属关系概况，而在太平洋地区，我们有海洋尺度的数据。抹香鲸用尾声交流，这是一种刻板的点击模式。这些尾语的方言特征是氏族，具有重叠分布但具有氏族特定行为的大规模社会文化实体。这些部落是我们了解鲸鱼文化的主要途径。我们将绘制从加勒比海东部到全球范围内各部族的地理分布，评估不同海洋部族之间的重叠和避免。在氏族中，我们将测量总体曲目的变化率，以及特定结尾类型的结构。然后，我们会问，在宗族重叠较大的地方，方言是否受到更大的约束，这表明方言是宗族身份的象征性标志。不同部族的尾语特征的实验回放将允许我们检验这一假设。如果宗族方言进化的速度不同，这表明更高层次的文化过程，如顺从，在宗族之间是不同的。除了尾语方言之外，我们还将使用一系列文化行为，评估太平洋和大西洋的部落对是否拥有相似的特征行为，表明文化进化的平行模式。这项提议的研究极具原创性；它提出了全新的研究领域，包括平行文化演变和文化认同的等级制度。它使用和开发创新的方法，如动态社会网络分析和回放技术。人们越来越认识到非人类文化对生态和进化的重要性，以及它在加拿大国内和国际管理和保护方面的作用。