Evolution and Ecology of Social Behaviour

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Safe wastewater management is a global challenge. While most municipalities in Canada use treatment systems to process wastewater, treated wastewater effluent still contains a mixture of contaminants, comprising the largest point source of pollution in aquatic ecosystems. Sadly, the rich food sources supp¬lied by the nutrients in treated wastewater often attract animals to areas where treated wastewater is discharged. Exposure to the chemicals in treated wastewater is known to alter animals behaviour, but to date researchers have mainly focused studies on reproductive behaviour and simple behaviours such as locomotion. We know virtually nothing about how chronic exposure to treated wastewater influences complex social behaviours such as group aggregation and social coordination (which can promote food acquisition and predator avoidance). Social behaviours can have large fitness benefits for individuals and concomitant impacts on population growth and resilience. The long-term goals of my research program are to understand how and why complex sociality evolved and is maintained, and how human impacts influence animal behaviour. This research proposal leverages my research expertise in both these areas and builds upon experience, tools, and collaborations that are already in place. The aim of this proposal is to determine how wastewater-a ubiquitous environmental stressor-impacts the social behaviour of fishes. Using a multidisciplinary approach that combines behavioural, ecological, physiological, and ecotoxicological research tools, my students and I will investigate the myriad ways that wastewater exposure affects the social structure and social behaviour of fishes, and how seasonality and the social environment modulate the impacts of wastewater exposures. To address this aim, I propose a series of 12 studies with fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) that take advantage of powerful new tools for simultaneous measurement of multiple individuals to monitor metabolic rates and group cohesion. Our results will shape superior wastewater treatment management, establish greater ecological validity of laboratory ecotoxicology research, improve ecological risk assessment, and inform the mitigation of human impacts on aquatic ecosystems in Canada and globally. A final benefit, and a priority for me, is that the proposed research will create a diverse and inclusive training environment-led by an established and committed woman scientist-that will support the next generation of Canadian aquatic environmental ecologists and evolutionary behavioural scientists.