RIG/CAA: Effects of the Trade-off between Visual Acuity and Visual Fields on Anti-predator Behavior in Social Foraging Birds

RIG/CAA：视力和视野之间的权衡对群居觅食鸟类反捕食者行为的影响

• 批准号: 0937187
• 负责人: Esteban Fernandez-Juricic
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-02-16 至 2011-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0937187&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RIG; CAA; Effects; Trade; off

Organisms benefit from collecting information because it allows them to assess alternative environmental conditions (relative to food, predators, mates, etc.) before making decisions. One of the main gaps in evolutionary ecology is to understand how the configuration of visual systems influences the costs and benefits of information gathering. This is particularly interesting in visually oriented animals that live in groups, such as birds, because their visual environments are complex, as they can use two sources of information (personal and social) that can affect an individual's fitness (e.g., predator detection), and eventually social interactions (e.g., group size, neighbor distance). For instance, an animal can detect a predator through its own vigilance behavior (personal information) or through the anti-predator behavior of flock mates (social information). The goal of this project is to study how two key visual capacities (visual acuity and the extent of the visual fields) affect anti-predator behavioral responses in social foraging scenarios using four bird species as models: House Finch Carpodacus mexicanus, House Sparrow Passer domesticus, Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater, and European Starling Sturnus vulgaris. The general hypothesis is that the degree to which visual social information is used to minimize vulnerability to predation will depend upon a trade-off between visual acuity and visual fields. Two predictions will be tested. First, species with relatively wide and less acute vision will exhibit less high-quality (head-up) scanning than species with relatively narrow and more acute vision due to greater visual coverage. Second, predator detection in species with relatively wide and less acute visual systems will be limited by the distance to the predator due to their reduced depth of vision; whereas in species with relatively narrow visual fields and more acute vision, predator detection will be limited by body posture and head-orientation due to their more constrained visual coverage. This study will enhance our understanding of the mechanisms involved in anti-predator behavior in species with different visual systems, which may have influenced the evolution of vision in passerine birds. New knowledge bringing together sensory biology and behavioral ecology will be produced and communicated to the scientific community through inter-disciplinary peer-reviewed journals and meetings, involving graduate and undergraduate students as coauthors, and to lay audiences through a non-technical publication. Research will be integrated with teaching through different activities with the general goal of heightening the interest of minorities in evolutionary biology. First, minority high school, undergraduate, and graduate students will be involved in the project. Second, new lecture and lab modules will be developed on the evolution of avian sensory systems. Third, outreach seminars will be given at high schools in communities with high representation of minorities to show the similarities and differences between human and avian vision and how these affect behavior. Fourth, a webpage will be developed emphasizing the relevance of inter-disciplinary research in sensory and behavioral ecology to understand the evolution of visual systems.

有机体从收集信息中受益，因为它允许他们在做出决定之前评估替代性环境条件（相对于食物，捕食者，伴侣等）。进化生态学的主要差距之一是了解视觉系统的配置如何影响信息收集的成本和收益。这在生活成鸟类（例如鸟类）的视觉动物中特别有趣，因为它们的视觉环境很复杂，因为它们可以使用两个信息来源（个人和社交），它们可能影响个人的健康状况（例如，捕食者检测）以及最终的社交互动（例如，群体大小，邻居，距离）。例如，动物可以通过其自身的警惕行为（个人信息）或羊群伴侣的抗侵犯行为（社会信息）来检测捕食者。 The goal of this project is to study how two key visual capacities (visual acuity and the extent of the visual fields) affect anti-predator behavioral responses in social foraging scenarios using four bird species as models: House Finch Carpodacus mexicanus, House Sparrow Passer domesticus, Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater, and European Starling Sturnus vulgaris.一般假设是，视觉社会信息用于最小化捕食的脆弱性的程度将取决于视力和视野之间的权衡。将测试两个预测。首先，比由于视觉覆盖范围较大的物种，具有相对较宽和敏锐的视力较少的物种将表现出较小的高质量（头部）扫描。其次，由于视力的降低，在捕食者相对较宽和急性视觉系统的物种中的检测将受到捕食者的距离的限制。尽管在具有相对狭窄的视野和更敏锐的视力的物种中，由于其视觉覆盖范围更大，捕食者检测将受到身体姿势和头部定向的限制。 这项研究将增强我们对具有不同视觉系统的物种中抗侵犯行为所涉及的机制的理解，这可能影响了雀形鸟类的视觉演变。 新知识将通过跨学科的同行评审的期刊和会议将感觉生物学和行为生态学汇总到科学界，并将其传达给科学界，涉及毕业生和本科生作为合着者，并通过非技术出版物来宣传观众。研究将通过不同的活动与教学结合，以增强少数民族对进化生物学的利益的总体目标。首先，少数民族高中，本科生和研究生将参与该项目。其次，将在鸟类感觉系统的演变上开发新的讲座和实验室模块。第三，将在少数群体代表高度代表的社区的高中举办宣传研讨会，以显示人类和鸟类视力之间的相似性和差异以及这些影响行为的影响。第四，将开发一个网页，强调在感觉和行为生态学中跨学科研究的相关性，以了解视觉系统的演变。