Interference versus exploitative competition: causes and consequences

生物体之间的相互作用主要有三种方式：竞争、合作和捕食。动物的竞争行为在不同物种之间有很大的差异，从和平分享资源到激烈的竞争。我的研究项目调查（1）是什么导致了这种多样性的攻击行为，以及（2）攻击行为对动物种群的后果。在这个建议中，我们将重点放在两个变量：竞争对手之间的视觉隔离程度和竞争每个配偶（操作性比，OSR）或每个资源单位（竞争对手资源比，CRR）的平均个体数。具体而言，我们将测试是否增加结构的环境减少领土的大小，增加人口密度和降低占主导地位的个人垄断资源的能力，以及是否配偶的稀缺性，巢址的稀缺性，或两者兼而有之，最好的预测性内的侵略行为的男性和女性罪犯慈鲷鱼（Amatitlania nigrofasciata）。结合我们以前的工作，这些发现将为预测动物社会中的攻击行为程度提供一个定量框架，这对于理解社会和交配系统的进化至关重要。

Organisms interact with each other in three major ways: competition, cooperation, and predation. Competitive behaviour in animals is remarkably variable within species, ranging from the peaceful sharing of resources to fierce contests. My research program investigates (1) what causes this diversity of aggressive behaviour, and (2) the consequences of aggressive behaviour for animal populations. In this proposal, we will focus on two variables: the degree of visual isolation between competitors and the average number of individuals competing for each mate (operational sex ration, OSR) or each resource unit (competitor to resource ratio, CRR). Specifically, we will test whether adding structure to an environment decreases territory size, increases population density and decreases the ability of dominant individuals to monopolize resources, and whether the scarcity of mates, the scarcity of nest sites, or both, best predict the within-sex aggressive behaviour of male and female convict cichlid fish (Amatitlania nigrofasciata). Taken together with our previous work, these findings will provide a quantitative framework for predicting the degree of aggressive behaviour in animal societies, which is fundamental to understanding the evolution of social and mating systems.