The Consistency of Behavioral Plasticity Across Different Selective Contexts.

动物通常从调整它们的行为以适应环境条件中受益，这些反应可以很快。然而，个人往往在他们做出调整的程度上有所不同（即，其特征的可塑性）。例如，通过在捕食者被检测到时减少其活动，个体可能不太可能被检测到。在这项研究中，研究人员将评估四种情况下的行为可塑性：一般活动，觅食行为，竞争行为和求爱行为。总体目标是测试在一种环境背景下表现出更大可塑性的个体是否在其他环境中也表现出更大的可塑性。为了测量响应差异，将在存在和不存在捕食者的情况下对单个剑尾鱼进行测试。剑尾鱼是黑色素瘤研究的模型，它们的行为已经被研究了50多年。因为动物的大小可以影响表达特定行为的成本和收益，大小也应该影响可塑性模式。单个基因在很大程度上影响剑尾鱼的大小，在某些情况下，小雄性比大雄性表现出更大的可塑性（例如，竞争行为）。由于体型差异的遗传基础已经确定，这是一个理想的系统，对于在一个环境背景下更具可塑性的个体是否在其他环境背景下也更具可塑性，几乎一无所知。然而，这些信息对于理解为什么个人以不同的方式对环境变化做出反应至关重要。由于可塑性在多大程度上可以单独优化，以及可塑性如何在不同的情况下运作尚不清楚，这项工作有望为我们理解行为可塑性做出重要贡献。该项目还将为研究生提供培训，为本科生提供深入了解科学过程的机会，并针对K-12学生开展外联活动。

Animals often benefit from adjusting their behavior to environmental conditions, and these responses can be rapid. Yet, individuals often differ in the degree to which they make adjustments (i.e., plasticity of their traits). For example, by reducing its activity when a predator is detected, an individual may be less likely to be detected. For this study, the investigators will assess behavioral plasticity in four contexts: general activity, foraging behavior, competitive behavior, and courting behavior. The overarching goal is to test whether individuals that show greater plasticity in one environmental context also show greater plasticity in others. To measure response differences, individual swordtail fish will be tested both in the presence and absence of a predator. Swordtail fish are a model for melanoma research and their behavior has been studied for 50+ years. Because an animal's size can affect the costs and benefits of expressing particular behaviors, size should also affect plasticity patterns. A single gene largely influences swordtail size, and small males show greater plasticity in some contexts than large males (e.g., in competitive behavior). As a genetic basis of size differences has been identified, this is an ideal system for the proposed work.Virtually nothing is known about whether individuals that are more plastic in one environmental context are also more plastic in other environmental contexts. Yet, such information is essential for understanding why individuals respond in different ways to environmental change. As the extent to which plasticity can be individually optimized and how plasticity operates in different contexts is not yet known, this work promises to make an important contribution to our understanding of behavioral plasticity. This project will also provide training for graduate students, opportunities for undergraduates to gain an intensive introduction to the scientific process, and outreach activities targeting K-12 students.