Social phenotype-dependent selection of social environment in wild great and blue tits: an experimental study

Regan, Charlotte E.; Beck, Kristina Barbara; McMahon, Keith; Crofts, Sam; Firth, Josh A.; Sheldon, Ben C.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.1602

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…Our experimental results are largely consistent with predictions from theoretical (Bolnick & Otto, 2013;Edelaar et al, 2008Edelaar et al, , 2017Edelaar et al, , 2023Edelaar & Bolnick, 2012;Mortier et al, 2019;Ravigné et al, 2009;Scheiner et al, 2022) and empirical studies (Benkman, 2017;Camacho & Hendry, 2020;Holtmann et al, 2017;Porter & Benkman, 2022;Regan et al, 2022). Even more, MHC was able to operate in a novel environment and be based on a novel ecological trait.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Experimental rapid and small-scale ecological population divergence in the absence of current natural selection

Munar-Delgado,

Hidalgo-Rodríguez,

Sánchez-Montes

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Adaptive divergence has long been a core topic in the field of evolutionary biology, with natural selection traditionally considered its only driver. Here we focus on the ability of matching habitat choice to generate population divergence and reproductive isolation. This alternative mechanism of divergence considers that individuals choose their habitats based on an evaluation of the ecological match between their phenotype and the available environments, which subsequently limits gene flow. To test this, we conducted experiments with captive zebra fiches equipped with transponder-tags and using transponder-operated bird feeders. We thereby created within a single aviary two areas with distinct resources, and the associated ecological traits that provided access to only one of the resources. We found that most zebra finches chose to breed in the same area as where they had access to their ecological resource, thereby creating population divergence in the absence of current natural selection on the ecological trait. This choice of breeding area indirectly resulted in assortative mating for the ecological trait. If the ecological trait were heritable, this assortative mating would carry the obtained divergence into the next generation. Our results experimentally confirm the predicted ability of matching habitat choice to drive rapid population divergence and limit maladaptive gene flow, especially at the small temporal and spatial scales where natural selection is unlikely to do so (here: one generation and one aviary). This might be increasingly relevant in a world where anthropogenic impacts create rapid environmental changes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Experimental rapid and small-scale ecological population divergence in the absence of current natural selection

Munar-Delgado,

Hidalgo-Rodríguez,

Sánchez-Montes

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…, non-random gene flow 1,2,6,8,12,14,15,18,19,47 . Unfortunately, because other mechanisms of adaptation can result in comparable phenotype-environment match in nature, matching habitat choice is relatively hard to identify in the wild 27,35,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] . Most of these studies are not conclusive about the mechanism driving adaptation and divergence, but here we have shown conclusively how differential perception of habitats -the key component of matching habitat choice -can cause population divergence and sexual isolation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex in a virtual reality: experimental evidence for sexual isolation due to variation in perception of the environment

Peralta-Rincón

Aoulad-Taher

Edelaar

2023

Preprint

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Differential perception and subsequent differential use of habitats can generate local adaptation, especially when natural selection cannot. However, this local adaptation is not maintained into future generations unless mating happens within the chosen habitats. We currently have no experimental data on whether differential perception of environments results in sexual isolation. We induced differential perception of environments by stimulating different olfactory neurons via light pulses (optogenetics) in two groups of fruit flies. These flies were released in a cage of which only one section received light pulses. One group of flies perceives this optogenetic stimulation as the smell of a harmful concentration of CO2 and was found to avoid the illuminated section. The other group perceives it as the smell of food-related compounds and was found to be attracted to the illuminated section. Due to this self-imposed spatial segregation, we subsequently observed a considerable degree of sexual isolation between the two groups of flies. In contrast, in two control treatments preventing differential perception of the environment, sexual isolation was virtually absent. Our results show that differential perception of the environment can easily and rapidly generate spatial segregation and sexual isolation among individuals that are ecologically different. This can maintain local adaptation, especially under conditions when natural selection cannot, which are increasingly common due to human-induced rapid environmental change.

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“…This raises the question of how individuals buffer such environmental changes in their network, and whether this has consequences for their fitness and life history strategies. For instance, while associations are maintained even when individuals are assorted at different feeders, scrounging might increase as individuals still use feeders where they don't have access to food in order to maintain previously established relationships (Regan et al, 2022). Data outside of the feeding context might also prove useful in understanding how individuals adjust their behaviour to stay with their associates despite changes in their foraging environment.…”

Section: Dyadic Associationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling effects of fine-scale changes within wild-bird flocks on sociality

Troisi,

Firth,

Crofts

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Social structure and individual sociality impact a wide variety of behavioural and ecological processes. Although it is well known that changes in the physical and social environment shape sociality, how perturbations govern sociality at a fine spatial scale remains poorly understood. By applying automated experimental treatments to RFID-tracked wild great tits (Parus major) in a field experiment, we examined how individual social network metrics changed when food resources and social stability were experimentally manipulated at the within-group spatial scale.First, we examined how individual sociality responds when food resources changed from a dispersed distribution (50m apart) to a clustered distribution (1m apart). Second, we tested how sociality changed when individuals were restricted to feeding in a manner that mimics assortative behaviour within flocks. Third, we tested the effects of experimentally manipulating the stability of these social groupings. Finally, we returned the feeders to the original dispersed distribution to test whether effects carried over.Repeatability analyses showed consistent differences among individuals in their social phenotypes across the various manipulations; dyadic association preferences also showed consistency. Nevertheless, average flock size and social centrality measures increased after the food was clustered. Some of these metrics changed further when birds were then forced to feed from only one of the five clustered feeders. There was some support for group stability at individual feeders also impacting individual social network metrics: increase in flock size was more pronounced in the stable than the unstable group. Most of the differences in sociality were maintained when the food distribution returned to the dispersed pattern, and this was caused primarily by the change in resource distribution rather than the social manipulation.Our results show that perturbations in the access to resources and social group stability can change sociality at a surprisingly fine spatial scale. These small-scale changes could arise through a variety of mechanisms, including assortative positioning within groups due to, for instance, similarity among individuals in their preferences for different resource patches. Our results suggest that small-scale effects could lead to social processes at larger scales and yet are typically overlooked in social groups.

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Social phenotype-dependent selection of social environment in wild great and blue tits: an experimental study

Cited by 11 publications

References 84 publications

Experimental rapid and small-scale ecological population divergence in the absence of current natural selection

Experimental rapid and small-scale ecological population divergence in the absence of current natural selection

Sex in a virtual reality: experimental evidence for sexual isolation due to variation in perception of the environment

Unravelling effects of fine-scale changes within wild-bird flocks on sociality

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