THE ECOLOGY OF BEHAVIOURAL CONTAGION IN NATURAL SYSTEMS

自然系统中行为传染的生态学

基本信息

批准号：
NE/S010335/1
负责人：
Ben Sheldon
金额：
$ 81.96万
依托单位：
University of Oxford
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2019 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FS010335%2F1
关键词：
ECOLOGY BEHAVIOURAL CONTAGION NATURAL SYSTEMS

项目摘要

Across the animal kingdom, the transfer of social information shapes almost all aspects of life. Information transmission takes place in many contexts, and may involve direct communication or information spreading via inadvertent social cues, for instance when individuals learn information through observing others. As individuals gain information and adopt new behaviours, this can then be passed onto others, and the behaviour can spread through the society. For instance, in the 1940's, British tits (Paridae) were observed opening milk bottle tops, and this behaviour appeared to transmit across the population. By transmitting from individual to individual, the social spread of behaviour has the potential to cause both short-term changes (such as modifications to foraging behaviour) as well as long-term multi-generational processes (such as the emergence of culture). By definition, social transmission depends upon the fine-scale social connections between individuals, and the 'social networks' of many animal societies are known to hold much relevance to the spread of behaviour. Nevertheless, the mode by which behaviour spreads, and the factors that shape this, remain less well understood. In particular, two contrasting hypotheses exist. A long-held hypothesis formed in the 1970's which has been highly influential across diverse systems (ranging from computational networks to animal societies) argues that weak social links often bridge the network and therefore enable increased diffusion potential in contrast to strong links that are usually between individuals who are connected within small clusters - or cliques - anyway. However, a more recent hypothesis that is currently revolutionizing the sociology of behaviour spread states that if adopting a behaviour requires social reinforcement, then strong ties within clustered cliques of individuals become most important. Yet, testing these hypotheses and examining the social, and ecological factors shaping behaviour spread within animal systems requires (i) large-scale tracking of wild individuals within the same social system, (ii) the ability to monitor behaviour at high resolution and, crucially, (iii) experimental manipulations of the potential governing factors.Here, we will use an exceptionally detailed study of wild birds (great tits) at Wytham, near Oxford, involving thousands of individuals tracked over their entire lifetimes, to understand how behaviour spreads. Our previous work has demonstrated that behaviour is transmitted across social ties between these birds, and that it is possible to manipulate population-level components and individual-level sociality using novel automated selective feeders to control precisely which individuals can feed in each area of the woodland. We will combine our past protocols to allow monitoring and manipulation of individuals' social ties and behaviour to test the way behaviour spreads and how ecological and individual factors influence this. First, by manipulating fundamental ecological factors (density and mixing) we will determine how these affect network structure and the consequences for behaviour spread. Second, we will test how differences in individuals' social characteristics affect the flow of new behaviours by manipulating the social start points of behaviour and the presence of particular individuals. In addition, we will examine how behavioural changes may feedback onto social structure itself. Our overall goal is to develop an integrated understanding of the interplay between ecology, sociality, and the spread of behaviour. These insights can then be used to understand the social consequences of ecological factors, the role of individual characteristics in shaping transmission processes, and allow the prediction how behavioural spread may alter under different scenarios, in changing conditions and when subject to perturbations.

在整个动物界，社会信息的传递几乎塑造了生活的所有方面。信息传输发生在许多情况下进行，可能涉及直接的沟通或通过无意的社会提示传播，例如个人通过观察他人学习信息时。随着个人获得信息并采用新行为，这可以传递给他人，而行为可以通过社会传播。例如，在1940年代，观察到英国山雀（Paridae）打开牛奶瓶顶部，这种行为似乎在整个人群中传播。通过从个人传输到个人，行为的社会传播具有引起短期变化（例如觅食行为的修改）以及长期多代过程（例如文化的出现）。根据定义，社会传播取决于个人之间的精细社会联系，许多动物社会的“社交网络”与行为传播相关。然而，行为传播的模式以及塑造这种行为的因素的理解程度不高。特别是存在两个对比的假设。 1970年代形成的一个长期以来的假设在各种系统（从计算网络到动物社会）之间具有很大的影响力，认为薄弱的社会联系经常弥合网络，因此与通常在小簇中相互连接的个体之间的牢固联系相反，可以增加扩散潜力，无论如何。但是，目前正在彻底改变行为社会学传播社会学的最近假设指出，如果采用行为需要社会加强，那么个人集群中的牢固联系将变得最重要。然而，测试这些假设并检查动物系统中塑造行为传播的社会和生态因素需要（i）在同一社会系统中对野生个体进行大规模跟踪，（ii）在高分辨率和高分辨率下监视行为的能力，并在高分辨率上，（iii）对潜在的统治因素进行实验性操纵。在整个一生中追踪，以了解行为如何传播。我们以前的工作表明，行为是在这些鸟类之间的社会联系之间传播的，并且有可能使用新颖的自动选择性喂食者来精确地控制哪些人可以在林地的每个地区喂食。我们将结合我们过去的方案，以允许监视和操纵个人的社会联系和行为，以测试行为传播的方式以及生态和个人因素如何影响这一点。首先，通过操纵基本的生态因素（密度和混合），我们将确定这些因素如何影响网络结构以及行为传播的后果。其次，我们将测试个人社会特征的差异如何通过操纵行为起点和特定个人的存在来影响新行为的流动。此外，我们将研究行为变化如何反馈社会结构本身。我们的总体目标是对生态学，社会性和行为传播之间的相互作用有综合的理解。然后，这些见解可用于了解生态因素的社会后果，个体特征在塑造传输过程中的作用，并允许在不同情况下，在变化的条件下以及受扰动时的行为传播方式可能发生变化。

项目成果

期刊论文数量（10）

专著数量（0）

科研奖励数量（0）

会议论文数量（0）

专利数量（0）

Assessing information-sharing networks within small-scale fisheries and the implications for conservation interventions.

DOI：
10.1098/rsos.211240
发表时间：
2021-11
期刊：
Royal Society open science
影响因子：
3.5
作者：
Arlidge WNS;Firth JA;Alfaro-Shigueto J;Ibanez-Erquiaga B;Mangel JC;Squires D;Milner-Gulland EJ
通讯作者：
Milner-Gulland EJ

Variation in local population size predicts social network structure in wild songbirds

当地人口规模的变化预测了野生鸣禽的社交网络结构