The Influence of Individual Physiology on Group Behaviour in Fish Schools

鱼群的行为是动物王国中最迷人的现象之一，闪闪发光的鱼群已经成为水生世界的象征。除了具有美学吸引力外，集群行为也具有重要的生物学意义，在淡水和海洋生态系统中的多个物种的觅食和捕食者回避行为中发挥作用。鱼群的流动性和同步运动早已被研究过，但鱼群中个体鱼的行为如何影响整个群体的表现仍然是未知的。理解个体和群体表现之间的联系是很重要的，因为未来对水生环境的干扰-例如，对污染或气候变化等因素的响应-可能会导致个体鱼类的生理和行为发生变化，进而导致整个鱼群的变化。环境变化对群居动物的影响大多被忽视，而鱼群非常适合研究生物多样性的这一重要方面。该项目将通过调查个体鱼类之间的生理差异如何影响它们在学校内的行为来研究这些问题，反过来，这些个体如何影响整个学校的行为，以应对环境压力，如温度升高或氧气供应减少。为了实现这些目标，该研究金将包括几项基于实验室的研究，并通过使用北方最大的公共水族馆（位于丹麦），还将首次对一个拥有数千条鱼的鱼群中的个体行为进行科学观察。鱼群是研究动物生理和行为之间相互作用的理想场所，这种联系很少被直接证明。因此，在这一问题上的任何进展都可能导致一系列的问题，为未来的研究在生态生理学和行为生态学。

The behaviour of schooling fishes is one of the most fascinating phenomena in the animal kingdom, and images of shimmering fish schools have become emblematic of the aquatic world. In addition to being aesthetically captivating, schooling behaviour is also of great biological importance, playing a role in the foraging and predator-avoidance behaviour of multiple species in both freshwater and marine ecosystems. The fluid, synchronous movement of fish schools has long been studied, but it is still unknown how the behaviour of individual fish within the school influences the performance of the group as a whole. Understanding the links between individual and group performance is important since future disturbances to aquatic environments - in response to factors such as pollution or climate change, for instance - may cause changes in the physiology and behaviour of individual fish, and by extension, entire fish schools. The effect of environmental change on animals living in groups has been mostly overlooked, and fish schools are perfectly suited for studying this important aspect of biodiversity. This project will examine these issues by investigating how physiological differences between individual fish may affect their behaviour within a school, and in turn, how these individuals affect the behaviour of the entire school in response to environmental stressors such as increased temperature or decreased oxygen availability. To achieve these goals, this Fellowship will include several laboratory-based studies, and, by using Northern Europe's largest public aquarium (located in Denmark), will also incorporate the first ever scientific observations of individual behaviours in a school containing thousands of fish. Fish schools are ideal for studying the interaction between physiology and behaviour in animals, a link which has rarely been demonstrated directly. As such, any advances in this subject are likely to result in a range of questions for future research in both ecophysiology and behavioural ecology.