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Behavioural Ecology > Principles > Flashcards

Principles Flashcards

1
Q

What is the fundamental force driving life on earth

A

Evolution

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2
Q

What 2 main characteristics has evolution placed in all individuals

A

All individuals are genetically selfish and optimally efficient

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3
Q

What is behavioural ecology

A

A discipline that aims to explain to explain the survival and reproductive value (i.e. the evolutionary significance) of behavioural traits

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4
Q

What are the two fundamental themes of behavioural ecology

A

Natural (and sexual) selection maximises gene survival, and individuals (=vehicles for genes) should behave to maximise individual and inclusive fitness

The optimal behaviour needed to maximise fitness will be efficient and depend on the behaviour of others, and on the environment

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5
Q

What are the 3 fundamentals required for behaviour to work

A

Sense organ
Neuronal/ hormonal system
muscle

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6
Q

What does a sense organ do

A

Gathers information about the physical, chemical and biological environment

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7
Q

What are the basic principles of the nervous system

A 
Action potential (Electrochemical flux) passes down a neuron from dendrites/sense organ and generates the release of neurotransmitter into the next neuron/ neuromuscular junction
Concentrated ganglia/brains allow information storage
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8
Q

Give an example of how hormone levels can effect behaviours

A

Davidson et al (1968) found that female rats were very aggressive to males when they had low levels of oestrogen but would go into lordosis when they had a high does

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9
Q

Describe a muscle

A

Motors that allow physical movement (and behaviour)

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10
Q

What are the differences between simple behaviour such as reflexes and more complex behaviour such as fixed action patterns

A

Reflexes have a simple stimulus and neural pathway and the form it occurs in is constant, consistent and usually momentary
A fixed action pathway is and innate and stereotypical behaviour with a more complicated neural control and stimuli. It is also more prone to vary in relationto context and habituation

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11
Q

example of a fixed action pattern

A

the moth escape response

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12
Q

What are proximate explanations

A

descriptions & explanations based on immediate cause and mechanism (stimuli, genetics, hormones, experience)

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13
Q

What are ultimate explanations

A

explanations based on survival/reproductive value or function

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14
Q

What is evolutionary fitness

A

It is a kind of measure of currency on how good the behaviour/trait is for allowing for individual survival and reproductive success

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15
Q

how is reproductive fitness quantified

A

Between 0 and 1 where 0 means the behaviour or trait contriubutes nothing to survival and reproduction and 1 means its 100% contributing to survival

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16
Q

What can prevent optimality from being reached

A

Mutation
Linkage (beneficial genes linked to deleterious genes)
Pleiotropy (single genes with multiple effects)
Phylogenetic inertia / evolutionary lag
Environmental variation
Trade-offs
Competition and conflict!!

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17
Q

What are the 5 steps of behavioural evolution

A

Behavioural variation in a population
That variation is heritable
Individuals compete to survive and reproduce
Survival/reproductive success is influenced by behaviour
Behaviour with high fitness is selected

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18
Q

What are the 3 assumptions needed to support behavioural evolution

A

Behaviour is genetically controlled and heritable

Timespans of selection are sufficient for adaptation to happen

The unit of selection is the INDIVIDUAL and ITS GENES (not the GROUP or the SPECIES)….

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19
Q

What is heritability

A

Proportion of phenotypic variance attributed to genotypic variance

Varies from 0 (= completely environmentally determined) to 1 (completely genetically determined)

20
Q

What conditions re requires for non-kin altruism to occur

A

Altruistic act has relatively low cost (high cost encourages cheating and defection)

Benefit exceeds the cost

Defection leads to ‘punishment’ (e.g. via losing cooperating benefits – even across the group)

  1. Encounter rate probabilities between individuals are high (=spatial clustering)
  2. Individuals recognise one-another (= ‘higher’ animals)
21
Q

What is an ESS

A

An ESS is a theoretically determined strategy which, if adopted by the majority of the population, cannot be beaten (or invaded) by an alternative strategy

22
Q

Why is non cooperation an ESS

A

Because it cannont be invaded by an alternative strategy

23
Q

Example of non kin altruism

A

Vampire bats sharing blood meals

24
Q

What is optimality theory

A

Theory that seeks to describe how traits are optimal, i.e. they generate the most profitable ratio of fitness benefits to fitness costs

25
Q

What is optimal behaviour

A

It is a behavioural strategy that maximises fitness

26
Q

What does the IFD predict

A

that the distribution of animals among patches will minimize resource competition and maximize fitness

27
Q

What does the ideal mean in IFD

A

It’s ideal, because animals have complete information about the availability of resources

28
Q

What does the free mean in IFD

A

It’s free, because animals are free to go where they will do best

29
Q

Example of IFD

A

Whitham found that stem mother aphids exhibited IFD when they form galls in narrowleaf cottonwood. He found more galls on larger leaves than on small and that the aphids which shared leaves had the same average reproductive success as those that were alone, thus being a ideal free model

30
Q

In 4 words, described the hypothetico-deductive method

A

Observe
Hypothesize
Predict
Test

31
Q

What are the characteristics of good hypotheses

A

Consistent with observations
Consistent with logic
Consistent with knowledge
TESTABLE

32
Q

What 3 things should tests do

A

be explicit (but can support or reject a number of hypotheses)
eliminate / reduce confounding effects
should be explicit to answering the prediction

33
Q

What 4 forms can tests take

A

observational, experimental, comparative or theoretical

34
Q

What should be considered when trying to make good observations

A

Observations shouldbe made within an established framework (derived from previous hypothetico-deductive approaches) ie using experience and knowledge

35
Q

What is the caveat between closely related species and comparative tests

A

Closely-related species will show similarities because of common descent – not necessarily because of comparative adaptations

36
Q

What are the strengths of experimental tests

A

more rigorous

avoids confounding variables

37
Q

What are the limitations of experimental tests

A

May be artificial

good controls are hard to achieve

38
Q

What is a strength of observational tests

A

More natural

39
Q

What is a limitation of observational tests

A

confounding variables

40
Q

What is the strength of comparative tests

A

Includes broad evolutionary patterns

41
Q

What is the limitation of comparative tests

A

Phylogenies are not always available

42
Q

What do statistical tests measure

A

either differences or similarities between data sets

43
Q

Why is it important to have a big sample size

A

the more power the test has to be confident that chance does not explain the result

44
Q

What is the equation for confidence

A

confidence = signal/noise * square root of sample size

45
Q

What is a confound

A

a factor that drives similarity / difference in another factor

46
Q

When designing studies what are 4 things to beware of

A

Psuedoreplication
Auto-correlations
Excessive multiple comparisons
Unreasonable post hoc testing

Behavioural Ecology (6 decks)

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