Learning improves growth rate in grasshoppers

Dukas, Reuven; Bernays, Elizabeth A.

doi:10.1073/pnas.050461497

Cited by 176 publications

(131 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…While it is intuitively appealing to assume that such variation in learning performance is adaptive ( Johnston 1982;Dukas 1998), few studies have yet been conducted to specifically examine this link under natural conditions. Laboratory studies, using grasshoppers (Dukas & Bernays 2000) and parasitoid wasps (Dukas & Duan 2000), suggest that animals able to form associations between cues (such as colour, odour or location) and rewards perform better than animals prevented from learning. Other laboratory studies, applying artificial selection to the learning ability of fruitflies, provide evidence for potential fitness costs associated with enhanced performance in associative learning (Mery & Kawecki 2003, 2004 or long-term memory (Mery & Kawecki 2005) tasks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The correlation of learning speed and natural foraging success in bumble-bees

2008

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Despite the widespread assumption that the learning abilities of animals are adapted to the particular environments in which they operate, the quantitative effects of learning performance on fitness remain virtually unknown. Here, we evaluate the learning performance of bumble-bees (Bombus terrestris) from multiple colonies in an ecologically relevant associative learning task under laboratory conditions, before testing the foraging performance of the same colonies under the field conditions. We demonstrate that variation in learning speed among bumble-bee colonies is directly correlated with the foraging performance, a robust fitness measure, under natural conditions. Colonies vary in learning speed by a factor of nearly five, with the slowest learning colonies collecting 40% less nectar than the fastest learning colonies. Such a steep fitness function is suggestive of strong selection for higher learning speed. Partial correlation analysis reveals that other factors such as forager body size or colour preference appear to be negligible in our study. Although our study does not directly prove causality of learning on foraging success, our approach of correlating natural within-species variation in these two factors represents a major advance over traditional between-species correlative analyses where comparability can be compromised by the fact that species vary along multiple dimensions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The correlation of learning speed and natural foraging success in bumble-bees

2008

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“…Recent reports suggest that consumers may temporally change diet through learning and phenotypic plasticity (Kause et al 1999;Dukas & Bernays 2000;Egas & Sabelis 2001), which may provide a potential driving force for the introduction of temporal variability in food-web structure (Warren 1989;Winemiller 1990;Eveleigh et al 2007). Given this inherent flexibility in trophic interactions (MacArthur & Pianka 1966;Murdock 1969;Stephens & Krebs 1986), an environmental change that may alter a predator's diet selection behaviour (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food-chain length and adaptive foraging

Kondo

Ninomiya

2009

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Food-chain length, the number of feeding links from the basal species to the top predator, is a key characteristic of biological communities. However, the determinants of food-chain length still remain controversial. While classical theory predicts that food-chain length should increase with increasing resource availability, empirical supports of this prediction are limited to those from simple, artificial microcosms. A positive resource availability -chain length relationship has seldom been observed in natural ecosystems. Here, using a theoretical model, we show that those correlations, or no relationships, may be explained by considering the dynamic food-web reconstruction induced by predator's adaptive foraging. More specifically, with foraging adaptation, the food-chain length becomes relatively invariant, or even decreases with increasing resource availability, in contrast to a non-adaptive counterpart where chain length increases with increasing resource availability; and that maximum chain length more sharply decreases with resource availability either when species richness is higher or potential link number is larger. The interactive effects of resource availability, adaptability and community complexity may explain the contradictory effects of resource availability in simple microcosms and larger ecosystems. The model also explains the recently reported positive effect of habitat size on food-chain length as a result of increased species richness and/or decreased connectance owing to interspecific spatial segregation.

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“…When faced with such situations, the ability to produce innovative behavior and store it in the repertoire through individual or social learning may have a critical effect on the survival and fitness of individuals (15,(21)(22)(23)(24). Examples include the development of antipredatory responses against novel predators (25), the adoption of new food resources when the traditional ones become scarce (26), or the adjustment of breeding behavior to the prevailing ecological conditions (27).…”

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confidence: 99%

Big brains, enhanced cognition, and response of birds to novel environments

Sol

Duncan

Blackburn

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

789

713

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The widely held hypothesis that enlarged brains have evolved as an adaptation to cope with novel or altered environmental conditions lacks firm empirical support. Here, we test this hypothesis for a major animal group (birds) by examining whether largebrained species show higher survival than small-brained species when introduced to nonnative locations. Using a global database documenting the outcome of >600 introduction events, we confirm that avian species with larger brains, relative to their body mass, tend to be more successful at establishing themselves in novel environments. Moreover, we provide evidence that larger brains help birds respond to novel conditions by enhancing their innovation propensity rather than indirectly through noncognitive mechanisms. These findings provide strong evidence for the hypothesis that enlarged brains function, and hence may have evolved, to deal with changes in the environment. brain evolution ͉ phenotypic flexibility ͉ environmental change

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Learning improves growth rate in grasshoppers

Cited by 176 publications

References 20 publications

The correlation of learning speed and natural foraging success in bumble-bees

The correlation of learning speed and natural foraging success in bumble-bees

Food-chain length and adaptive foraging

Big brains, enhanced cognition, and response of birds to novel environments

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