Individuals/Behavioural Ecology Flashcards
List the scales of ecological research?/scales of ecology (6)
• Behavioural ecology.
• Population ecology.
• Community ecology.
• Ecosystem ecology.
• Landscape ecology.
• Global ecology.
3 main components of the biodiversity framework?
• Functional.
• Structural.
• Compositional.
From where did behavioural Ecology arise/emerge/originate?
Ethology (traditional animal behaviour).
Niko Tinbergen?
= important behavioural ecologist who proposed that there are 4 different ways of answering “why” questions about behaviour.
4 points of view that encompass behavioural studies?
• Development.
• Mechanism.
• Evolutionary history.
• Function.
AKA of each of the 4 points of view of behavioural studies?
• Ontogeny.
• Causation.
• Evolution.
• Survival value/Behaviour.
Development question?
How does the trait emerge across the lifespan?
Mechanism questions? (2)
• How does the trait work?
• How is the trait produced?
Evolutionary history questions? (2)
• How did the trait evolve?
• Why did the trait evolve?
Function questions? (2)
• Why is the trait adaptive?
• Why does the trait persist?
Proximate explanations?
= explain how an individual behaves in a particular way during its lifetime.
Ultimate explanations?
= explain why & how the individual has evolved the behaviour.
Points of view of behavioural studies that behavioural ecologists focus on? (2)
• Evolutionary history.
• Function.
Egs of questions that behavioural ecologists answer? (3)
• How does the behaviour increase an individual’s reproductive success?
• Does the behaviour increase an individual’s chances of survival?
• How has evolution shaped the behaviour?
Behavioural ecology attributes? (2)
• Emphasizes evolutionary explanations.
• Looks at the costs & benefits, and the trade-offs between them.
What do you mean when you say that behavioural Ecology emphasizes evolutionary explanations?
We mean that an animal showing optimal behaviour will maximize its fitness.
What do you mean when you say that behavioural ecology looks at the costs & benefits?
We look at which strategy maximized the benefits over the costs.
What does behavioural ecology focus on? (3)
• Ecology.
• Behaviour.
• Evolution.
Ecology?
= the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment.
Behaviour?
= the change in activity of an organism in response to a stimulus.
Evolution?
= change in the allele frequencies/genetic composition of a population over successive generations.
Behavioural ecology?
= study of the ecological & evolutionary basis for animal behaviour.
Underlying concepts of behavioural ecology? (3)
• NS.
• Strategies, costs & benefits.
• Phenotypic plasticity.
Conditions for NS to occur? (3)
• Variation in traits.
• Some of the variation must be heritable.
• Differential reproduction/survival (i.e., one trait must be more favourable than others).
Proofs of link between genes & behaviour? (2)
• Genetic mutants of Drosophila.
• Artificial selection in male crickets.
Cost (C)?
= any factor that reduces reproductive success.
Benefit (B)?
= any factor that increases reproductive success.
How do you observe/know that a strategy is successful in terms of costs & benefits?
Benefits > Costs (B>C).
Phenotypic plasticity?
= the ability of an organism to express different phenotypes depending on the environment.