Personalities influence spatial responses to environmental fluctuations in wild fish

Abstract

Although growing evidence supports the idea that animal personality can explain plasticity in response to changes in the social environment, it remains to be tested whether it can explain spatial responses of individuals in the face of natural environmental fluctuations. This is a major challenge in ecology and evolution as spatial dynamics link individual‐ and population‐level processes.In this study, we investigated the potential of individual personalities to predict differences in fish behaviour in the wild. Specifically, our goal was to answer if individual differences in plasticity of space use to sea surface temperature could be explained by differences in personality along the reactive–proactive axis.To address this question, we first conducted repeated standard laboratory assays (i.e., open‐field test, novel object test and mirror stimulation test) to assess the personality type of 76 wild‐caught Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). Next, we released the fish back into the sea and monitored their spatial behaviour over large temporal (16 months) and spatial (a whole fjord) scales, using high‐resolution acoustic tracking.We demonstrate that (a) cod personality traits are structured into a proactive–reactive syndrome (proactive fish being more bold, exploratory and aggressive), (b) mean depth use of individuals is mainly driven by sea temperature and (c) personality is a significant predictor of home range changes in the wild, where reactive, but not proactive, individuals reduced their home range as sea temperature increased.These findings expand our understanding of the ecological consequences of animal personality and the mechanisms shaping spatial dynamics of animals in nature.

Fine-scale movement patterns and behavioral states of gray triggerfish Balistes capriscus determined from acoustic telemetry and hidden Markov models

“…Externally determining sex is not possible for gray triggerfish, so we were unable to examine potential differences in movement rates between males and females. Recent research suggests variability in animal personalities like boldness or shyness can explain individual differences in movement behaviors (Villegas-Ríos et al, 2018).…”

Personality predicts foraging site fidelity and trip repeatability in a marine predator

“…Shyer animals are often characterized by high responsiveness to change (Coppens et al, 2010;Wolf et al, 2008), and indeed, in our boldness test, shy individuals were more responsive to the presentation of a novel object. Previous work has linked boldness with responsiveness to environmental change: for instance, shy, but not bold, Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) adjust their home ranges in response to increases in sea temperature (Villegas-Ríos, Réale, Freitas, Moland, & Olsen, 2018), and in sleepy lizards (Tiliqua rugosa), shy individuals were more responsive to changes in resource availability (Spiegel et al, 2015). During incubation, when birds are less constrained to return to predictable foraging sites, shy individuals may therefore be more likely to select sites based on environmental cues, rather than based on previous foraging attempts.…”

Harvest selection on multiple traits in the wild revealed by aquatic animal telemetry

“…Some pioneering studies on repeatability of behavior demonstrated that spatial ecology traits such as home range are repeatable in aquatic species like burbot (Lota lota; Harrison et al, 2015) and cod (Gadus morhua, Villegas-Ríos, Reale, Freitas, Moland, & Olsen, 2017; Villegas-Ríos, Réale, Freitas, Moland, & Olsen, 2018), and other studies revealed the repeatability of behavior in decapods based on laboratory assays (e.g., Gherardi, Aquiloni, & Tricarico, 2012). With this background, our last hypothesis is that spatial behavioral traits of lobster are repeatable, and thus, selection on behavioral traits has the potential to fuel evolutionary changes.…”