Modelling adaptive phenotypic plasticity of behaviour and the evolution of behavioural syndromes

行为表型的个体间变异研究，以前被认为主要是无法解释的和微不足道的变异，近年来得到了极大的关注，并引起了行为生态学的重大范式转变。最近的许多研究令人信服地表明，个体在不同的时间和不同的环境中表现出一致的行为表型（即人格）。然而，尽管许多描述性研究已经揭示了这种个性上的个体差异，但阐明这些差异演变和维持的原因的实验和模型仍然很少。在这个项目中，我们将使用理论方法来阐明这个尚未解决的问题。一个子项目将包括一系列以一般原则为重点的模型。其目标是将性选择和生活节奏综合症纳入行为类型的理论模型。这将增加对性选择、生活史和新陈代谢之间的潜在相互作用如何影响行为类型出现的理解。此外，在本研究小组的经验项目数据的启发下，我们将通过更具体的模型，探索i)季节差异，ii)母亲照顾强度的变化，iii)食物质量的变化，以及iv)相对于窝配偶的状态对行为表型进化和维持的影响。这种明确的建模方法将在与经验小组的密切合作下进行，具有积极的意义，即必要的现实条件将被适当地实施，并且相关的经验主义者将学习如何将建模作为一种重要的科学方法。

The study of between-individual variation in behavioural phenotypes, which previously has been perceived mainly as unexplained and insignificant variation, has gained significant attention during recent years and induced a major paradigm shift in behavioural ecology. Numerous recent studies have convincingly demonstrated that individuals show consistent behavioural phenotypes (i.e. personality) both in time and across contexts. Nevertheless, although many descriptive studies have revealed such individual differences in personality, experiments and models elucidating the causes for the evolution and maintenance of these differences are still rare. In this project, we will use theoretical approaches to shed new light on this unsolved problem. One sub-project will consist of a series of models focussing on general principles. The ambition is to incorporate sexual selection and the pace-of-life syndrome into theoretical models of behavioural types. This will increase the understanding how the potential interplay between sexual selection, life history, and metabolism can affect the emergence of behavioural types. Furthermore, with more specific models, inspired by the data gained in the empirical projects of our research group, we will explore the effects of i) seasonal differences, ii) varying intensity in maternal care, iii) food quality variation, and iv) state relative to litter-mates on the evolution and maintenance of behavioural phenotypes. This explicit modelling approach will be performed in close collaboration with the empirical groups, having the positive implication that the necessary realistic conditions will be implemented appropriately and that the involved empiricists will learn how to use modeling as an important scientific method.