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Sem 2: Behavioural ecology > Week 3 > Flashcards

Week 3 Flashcards

1
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

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2
Q

What is the aim of optimailty theory?

A

Optimality theory tries to understand / explain how animals (have evolved to) solve problems by simplifying into quantitative costs and benefits

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3
Q

How would you work out which strategy of more small eggs or fewer larger eggs will be selected for?

A

Fitness benefit = No. of eggs * probability of survival

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4
Q

Are animals conscious calculators?

A

No
Evolution optimizes every organic trait, including behaviour, through natural selection
Optimality can (sometimes) be quantified

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5
Q

What is the ideal free distrubution?

A

Ideal free distribution is a theoretical way in which a population’s individuals distribute themselves among several patches of resources within their environment, to minimize resource competition and maximize fitness

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6
Q

How can you work out an outcome for ideal free distrubution?

A

A graph with number of competitors on x axis and reward per individual on y axis. Negative correlation curv the more competitors the lower the reward

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7
Q

What are the assumptions made about the ideal free distrubution?

A

Its ideal, because animals have complete information about the availability of resources
Its free, because animals are free to go best area ie no outside influence like predators
Under IFD all individuals have equal fitness
Therefore the IFD is a stable distribution

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8
Q

How did they test IFD with sticklebacks?

A

Added food to two areas A had twice the amout of food than be
Predicted that twice as many fish where there’s twice as much food

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9
Q

What was the results of testing IFD in sticklebacks?

A

Average was 3 when food was reduced declined to 2 when rate was doubled increased to 4 fish. There was lag for both responses

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10
Q

Can IFD shown in humans?

A

Ideal free shoppers. people will go to empty queues

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11
Q

What are the benefits of living in groups?

A

Anti-predation
Decreases Inter-specific competition
Thermal advantage
Mobility advantage
Increases information
Increases foraging efficiency

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12
Q

What are the costs of living in groups?

A

Increase intra-specific competition
Interference
Cuckoldry
Increased rate of cannibalism/infanticide
Higher risk of parasites & disease

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13
Q

What is a case study of the downsides of living in groups?

A

Increases swallow paraistes on chicks when colony is large - positive correlation

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14
Q

What is a case study of the upsides of living in groups?

A

Defassa waterbuck
Larger group the larger the total vigilance time
Larger the group the lower the individual vigilance time is

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15
Q

How can living in a larger group increase antipredation?

A

Flock size dictates attack success for goshawks predating woodpigeons.
Trade off - bigger flocks have longer reaction distances

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16
Q

How can flock size change with predator risk?

A

Yellow-eyed juncos increase flock size under greater predation risk

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17
Q

What situations do MVT helps us to understand?

A

An animal exploits resources within discrete sites/patches
Within a patch, returns decrease over time (asymptotic (diminishing) gain curve)
There is a cost in getting to / from the patch

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18
Q

What does MVT stand for?

A

Marginal Value Theorem

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19
Q

What is an example of MVT?

A

Optimal foraging time

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20
Q

How would you calculate otimal foraging time?

A

Energy from food / (Time spent travelling + time spent searching)

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21
Q

What is the relationship for time spent searching for food and amount of food found?

A

A diminishing (asymptotic) gain curve

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22
Q

How would you work out how much time should an animal spend to get most out of the food resource?

A

Draw a line that starts at time spent travelling (x,0) and goes through where time spent searching meets amount of food found on the curve
Work out the number of energy gain / total time
Repeat until you find the highest number

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23
Q

What happens to the MVT number when travel time is lowered?

A

Both search time and the load are lower to maximise rate

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24
Q

What is starling foraging strategy?

A

Breeds in spring
400+ trips per day to feed nestlings
Nestlings mainly get fed leatherjackets

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25
Q

Do starlings behave like it is predicted with MVT theory?

A

Yes, travel time increases so does load size

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26
Q

How else can MVT be applied?

A

Optimality in the time spent copulating in dung flies

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27
Q

What is the case study in dung fly copulation?

A

Males mate with females on dung heaps
The longer a male copulates, the more eggs he fertilises
The longer a male copulates, the more opportunities he misses elsewhere

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28
Q

How else can optimality and resource selection vary?

A

With the economics of prey choice. Prey items vary in their cost

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29
Q

What did they find about crab size and mussel size influence handling time?

A

Smaller crabs spend have longer handling times as mussel size increases
Large crabs have small handling times with both small and large mussles
Medium crabs quickier than smaller crabs but cant access large mussels like large crabs can

30
Q

How does energy gain and handling time impact resouce gain?

A

Mussel calorific energy gain depends on handling time for different mussel and crab sizes
Large crabs can still benefit with spending more time on larger mussels compared to others which have a lower peak prefered size

31
Q

What are the rough optimal times for crabs at different sizes?

A

Small - 2cm mussels
Medium - 2.5 cm mussels
Large - 3.3 cm mussels

32
Q

Are crabs optimal?

A

Nearly - They are slightly lower than predicted could be to do with search time
Small - 1.3 cm mussels
Medium- 1.7 cm mussels
Large - 2.3 cm mussels

33
Q

What is an example of environment impacting behaviour?

A

John Krebs impacting resource management in great tits vs marsh tits

34
Q

How do great tits manage food resources?

A

Fat reserves with variable environements increasing body morning weight

35
Q

What is the downside of fat reserves?

A

Great Tits on bird table exposed to fake predator
Increased fat reserves decrease response time to predators
Trade off between reducing starvation vs risk of predation

36
Q

What is the disadvantage of external storage?

A

Larger brains for better memory to remember where food was stored. Larger brains cause increased caloric demand

37
Q

Why are Tribolium good model organisms?

A

Long history;
They’re Coleoptera, 1 in 2 species so broadly applicable;
Convenient- cheap and easy to look after

38
Q

What is the definition of dispersal?

A

Any movement of individuals or propagules with potential consequences for gene flow across space

39
Q

What are propagules?

A

Vegetative structure that can become detached from parent used in dispersal eg seeds, spores or endospores

40
Q

What is gene flow?

A

Any movement of individuals, and/or the genetic material they carry, from one population to another

41
Q

What are the popular image for dispersal?

A

Popular image of dispersal is seed dispersal / dispersal BY animals

42
Q

What are the key traits of animal dispersal?

A

More active and complex; but essentially the same principles as propagules dispersal

43
Q

What are reasons for dispersal?

A

To avoid competition
Locate scarce resources
Avoid predation
To find mates
To avoid inbreeding

44
Q

What is a case study of animal dispersal?

A

Inbreeding avoidance in lions
Male lions are kicked out of pride and have to compete for control of another pride to avoid inbreeding

45
Q

What are the advantages of dispersal?

A

Less competition
More resources
Less predation
More mates
Less inbreeding

46
Q

What are the potential disadvantages of dispersal?

A

More competition
Fewer resources
More predation
Fewer mates

47
Q

What are the consequences of dispersal on a individual?

A

Can increase or decrease:
Competition
Resources
Mates
Inbreeding

48
Q

What are the consequences of dispersal on a population?

A

Can increase genetic variation
Spatial structure
Metapopulation persistence
Range dynamics

49
Q

What is a consequence of no gene flow?

A

Disturbed landscapes -> habitat fragmentation -> meta population split into subpopulations –> higher risk of extinction

50
Q

?What is a consequence of gene flow on populations?

A

Undisturbed landscapes -> larger joined population-> gene flow of individuals around each of the habitats -> increased genetic variation across population -> increased resistance to potential extinction events and also recolonisation of high impacted areas

51
Q

What is range for a species?

A

The total area in which an animal can surive and live in

52
Q

How can a range for a species change?

A

Increased genes for dispersal allowing for colonisation
External factors changing environmental conditions allowing for new habitats to become accesible

53
Q

What is a case study for habitat range changes?

A

Human range changes.
2.5 mya located in east and south east africa
500,000 ya colonised rest of Africa, middle east, india, china, south east asia and southern europe
10,000 years colonised rest of word minus remote regions like iceland, new zealand, cold northern regions of canada and siberia

54
Q

What is an application of dispersal theory?

A

Vulnerability to climate change

55
Q

How can dispersal theory be used to show impact climate change?

A

Sampling - current habitat
Climate envelope - to show whether climate impacts location of species
Climate model predicts change in climate across areas
Ecologists, species disp knowledge - can predict where populations will move to

56
Q

What is the heritability of dispersal traits vs other complex behavioural traits?

A

Heritability estimated from birds and insects ~0.35
Other complex behaviour traits ~0.23

57
Q

What is a key genetic trait of complex behaviours?

A

Likely polygenic but genes have a large effect

58
Q

What are examples of genes and how they have impacts on different behaviours?

A

For - signalling receptor - larval foraging, boldness in mice, risk taking in humans
Drd4 - dopamine receptor - great tits + VNTR - serotonin receptor - monkeys and mice, aggression & dispersal
Pgi - metabolic enzyme glanville fratillary

59
Q

What are the 2 different ways a gene can impact behaviour?

A

Different modes of action - neurotransmitter vs metabolic enzyme

60
Q

What are two different behaviour syndromes in Tribiolium?

A

Small bodysize vs large bodysize

61
Q

What are the behaviour syndromes common in small body size tribiolium?

A

Small bodysize
Short legs / small wings
Fewer eggs
High egg provisioning
Short development time

62
Q

What are the behaviour syndromes common in large body size tribiolium?

A

Large bodysize
Long legs / big wings
More eggs
Less egg provisioning
Long development time

63
Q

What is the etomology of syndrome?

A

Greek, run together

64
Q

How are behaviours syndromes?

A

Genetics of dispersal itself -> predictably associated with other traits -> syndrome

65
Q

What is a consequence of different phenotypes?

A

Complex phenotypes suited to alternate life history strategies

66
Q

What is a feedback loop for terrotrial expansion?

A

Individuals with genes to disperse do, so they breed with others that can spread
These offspring can travel even further so have a high likelihood of breeding with other far dispersing gene organisms
This cycle then perpetuates slowly increasing territorial range every generation

67
Q

What is a case study of evolution of a feedback loop for territorial expansion?

A

Tribolium beetles were bred and proved that dispersion can be selected for so has a genetic trait
Evolution - 0cm to 8cm over 6 generations
No-evolution - 0cm to 6cm over 6 generations

68
Q

When were cane toads introduced to queensland?

A

Early 20th century

69
Q

What were the problems with cane toads in austrailia?

A

Cane american beetles live on ground were toads live but australia they live in top of sugar cane
Toads needed shelter during day
Toads decimated local fauna

70
Q

How has dispersal changed in cane toads in australia?

A

Most recently colonized areas moving ~5x further than 14ya
& 10x further than native range
More of a pattern within sites
Clear pattern of increasing tendency to move between days
Rapid evolution of these 2 behaviour traits driving accelerating spread

71
Q

What morphological changes in cane toads in native and invasion populations?

A

Lagrer Radioulna (forearm)
Thinner pelvic girdle
Both traits associated with being able to make bigger, longer hops

72
Q

How can you study dispersal in a lab?

A

Tribolium live in flour + oats box give 2 hours to settle
Then place plastic sheet just undersurface
Pour and filter out Tribolium of top and then for bottom
Then count and select 30 from each group and bred over generations and then repeat first experiment

Sem 2: Behavioural ecology (11 decks)

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