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7,742 results for “individuals”
Inferring individual fate from aquatic acoustic telemetry data
<ol> <li>Acoustic telemetry has become a popular means of obtaining individual behavioural data from a wide array of species in marine and freshwater systems. Fate information is crucial to understand important aspects of population dynamics such as mortality, predation or dispersal rates.</li> <li>Here we present a method to infer individual fate from acoustic telemetry arrays of receivers with overlapping detection ranges. Our method depends exclusively on information on animal movements and the characteristics and configuration of the telemetry equipment. By answering a limited number of simple questions, our method identifies six different fates: tagging mortality, natural mortality, fishing mortality, predation, dispersal and survival.</li> <li>Applying the method to a cod telemetry dataset, we were able to determine fate for 97% of the individuals. We validate the results using several external sources of information, such as recaptures from fishers and control fish with known fate.</li> <li>The method is readily applicable to a wide array of species with minimal adjustments, expanding the range of hypotheses that can be tested using telemetry data.</li> </ol>
Data from: Individual differences in behaviour explain variation in survival: a meta-analysis
<p>Research focusing on among-individual differences in behaviour ("animal personality") has been blooming for over a decade. One of the central theories explaining the maintenance of such behavioural variation posits that individuals expressing greater "risky" behaviours should suffer higher mortality. Here, for the first time, we synthesize the existing empirical evidence for this key prediction. Our results did not support this prediction as there was no directional relationship between riskier behaviour and greater mortality; however there was a significant absolute relationship between behaviour and survival. In total, behaviour explained a significant, but small, portion (5.8%) of the variance in survival. We also found that risky (versus "shy") behavioural types live significantly longer in the wild, but not in the laboratory. This suggests that individuals expressing risky behaviours might be of overall higher quality but the lack of predation pressure and resource restrictions mask this effect in laboratory environments. Our work implies that individual differences in behaviour explain important differences in survival but not in the direction predicted by theory. Importantly, this suggests that the models predicting survival trade-offs may need revision and/or empiricists may need to reconsider their proxies of risky behaviours when testing such theory.</p>
Data from: Wild acorn woodpeckers recognize associations between individuals in other groups
According to the social intelligence hypothesis, understanding the cognitive demands of the social environment is key to understanding the evolution of intelligence. Many important socio-cognitive abilities, however, have primarily been studied in a narrow subset of the social environment—within-group social interactions—despite the fact that between-group social interactions often have a substantial effect on fitness. In particular, triadic awareness (knowledge about the relationships and associations between others) is critical for navigating many types of complex social interactions, yet no existing study has investigated whether wild animals can track associations between members of other social groups. We investigated inter-group triadic awareness in wild acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus), a socially complex group-living bird. We presented woodpeckers with socially incongruous playbacks that simulated two outsiders from different groups calling together, and socially congruous playbacks that simulated two outsiders from the same group calling together. Subjects responded more quickly to the incongruous playbacks, suggesting that they were aware that the callers belonged to two different groups. This study provides the first demonstration that animals can recognize associations between members of other groups under natural circumstances, and highlights the importance of considering how inter-group social selection pressures may influence the evolution of cognition.
Data from: Foraging sparrows exhibit individual differences but not a syndrome when responding to multiple types of novelty
Differences between individuals in correlated responses across contexts have both functional and mechanistic implications. Such syndromes may have either beneficial or harmful consequences when novel changes in the environment occur. We used wild-caught house sparrows, Passer domesticus, to test in functionally relevant circumstances, whether neophobia (initial fear of novelty), habituation, and the learning of novel cues (discriminant learning) were linked by a common underlying mechanism or reflected separate processes. We repeatedly measured individual latencies to approach and also to feed from a familiar feeding site in three contexts: a baseline control for mild disturbance, in the presence of a novel object, and to a novel cue indicating hidden food. House sparrows on average exhibited neophobia, habituated to novel objects, and learned to associate new cues to a reward. We also found evidence for consistent individual differences in in both latencies within most contexts, but there was no evidence of individual differences in plasticity with repeated trials within either the novel object (habituation) or novel cue (learning) contexts. There was also little or no correlation between the two latencies within individuals within contexts. Individual differences in latencies to arrive at the food station exhibited strong correlations across contexts, but latencies to feed were weaker. These results suggest a personality trait that exists regardless of novelty, but no syndrome affecting reactions to different forms of novelty. House sparrows appear strongly plastic when responding to novel environments. Such plasticity is likely favored by the varied consequences of novelty across environments.
Data from: Individual differences are consistent across changes in mating status and mediated by biogenic amines
Although aspects of an individual's state are well-known to influence the expression of behavior, it is still unclear how elements of state affect consistent among-individual differences in behavior. With binary, irreversible elements of state, such as mating status, there may be optimal behavioral phenotypes before and after mating, with individuals often prioritizing mate acquisition before and resource acquisition after. Yet, limited plasticity may prevent optimal behavior in both contexts. Additionally, it remains largely unknown if some consistencies in neural or physiological traits may limit the ability of the organism to respond to state changes. In this study, we investigated how changes in a binary state variable, mating status, affected both the mean expression and among-individual variation in behavior and web structure of the redback spider, Latrodectus hasselti. Furthermore, we explored the role of biogenic amines in potentially mediating individual differences in behavior and web structure. We found that mated females were overall more aggressive than virgin females and also built webs structured primarily for capturing prey rather than safety. We also found that individual differences in behavior and web structure were maintained across mating statuses, which indicates the stability of these traits and may drive personality-specific state-dependent fitness trade-offs. Finally, we found that aggressive spiders had higher central nervous system dopamine levels. Interestingly, web structure was often correlated with a catabolite of tyramine (N-acetyltyramine), suggesting that variation in amine catabolism, and not the concentrations of the amines themselves, may drive individual differences in some traits.
Data from: Phenotypic integration in an extended phenotype: among‐individual variation in nest‐building traits of the alfalfa leafcutting bee (Megachile rotundata)
Structures such as nests and burrows are an essential component of many organisms' life-cycle and requires a complex sequence of behaviors. Because behaviors can vary consistently among individuals and be correlated with one another, we hypothesized that these structures would 1) show evidence of among-individual variation, 2) be organized into distinct functional modules, and 3) show evidence of trade-offs among functional modules due to limits on energy budgets. We tested these hypotheses using the alfalfa leafcutting bee, Megachile rotundata, a solitary bee and important crop pollinator. M. rotundata constructs complex nests by gathering leaf materials to form a linear series of cells in pre-existing cavities. In this study, we examined variation in the following nest construction traits: reproduction (number of cells per nest and nest length), nest protection (cap length and number of leaves per cap), cell construction (cell size and number of leaves per cell), and cell provisioning (cell mass) from 60 nests. We found a general decline in investment in cell construction and provisioning with each new cell built. In addition, we found evidence for both repeatability and plasticity in cell provisioning with little evidence for trade-offs among traits. Instead, most traits were positively, albeit weakly, correlated (r ~ 0.15), and traits were loosely organized into covarying modules. Our results show that individual differences in nest construction are detectable at a level similar to that of other behavioral traits and that these traits are only weakly integrated. This suggests that nest components are capable of independent evolutionary trajectories.
Data from: Disease and climate effects on individuals drive post-reintroduction population dynamics of an endangered amphibian
The emergence of novel pathogens often has dramatic negative effects on previously unexposed host populations. Subsequent disease can drive populations and even species to extinction. After establishment in populations, pathogens can continue to affect host dynamics, influencing the success or failure of species recovery efforts. However, quantifying the effect of pathogens on host populations in the wild is challenging because individual hosts and their pathogens are difficult to observe. Here we use long-term mark-recapture data to describe the dynamics of reintroduced populations of an endangered amphibian (Rana sierrae) and evaluate the success of these recovery efforts in the presence of a recently-emerged pathogen, the amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. We find that high B. dendrobatidis infection intensities are associated with increases in frog detectability and reductions in survival. When average infection intensities are high, adults are more likely to gain infections and less likely to lose infections. We also find evidence for intensity-dependent survival, with heavily infected individuals suffering higher mortality. These results highlight the need in disease ecology for probabilistic approaches that account for uncertainty in infection intensity using imperfect observational data. Such approaches can advance the understanding of disease impacts on host population dynamics, and in the current study will improve the effectiveness of species conservation actions.
Data from: Interacting effects of unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity in the life-history of the Southern fulmar
1.Individuals are heterogeneous in many ways. Some of these differences are incorporated as individual states (e.g., age, size, breeding status) in population models. However, substantial amounts of heterogeneity may remain unaccounted for, due to unmeasurable genetic, maternal, or environmental factors. 2.Such unobserved heterogeneity (UH) affects the behavior of heterogeneous cohorts via intra-cohort selection and contributes to inter-individual variance in demographic outcomes such as longevity and lifetime reproduction. Variance is also produced by individual stochasticity, due to random events in the life cycle of wild organisms, yet no study thus far has attempted to decompose the variance in demographic outcomes into contributions from unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity for an animal population in the wild. 3.We developed a stage-classified matrix population model for the Southern fulmar breeding on Ile des Pétrels, Antarctica. We applied multi-event, multi-state markrecapture methods to estimate a finite mixture model accounting for UH in all vital rates and Markov chain methods to calculate demographic outcomes. Finally, we partitioned the variance in demographic outcomes into contributions from unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity. 4.We identify three UH groups, differing substantially in longevity, lifetime reproductive output, age at first reproduction, and in the proportion of the life spent in each reproductive state. 14% of individuals at fledging have a delayed but high probability of recruitment and extended reproductive lifespan. 67% of individuals are less likely to reach adulthood, recruit late and skip breeding often but have the highest adult survival rate. 19% of individuals recruit early and attempt to breed often. They are likely to raise their offspring successfully, but experience a relatively short lifespan. Unobserved heterogeneity only explains a small fraction of the variances in longevity (5.9%), age at first reproduction (3.7%) and lifetime reproduction (22%). 5.UH can affect the entire life cycle, including survival, development, and reproductive rates, with consequences over the lifetime of individuals and impacts on cohort dynamics. The respective role of unobserved heterogeneity versus individual stochasticity varies greatly among demographic outcomes. We discuss the implication of our finding for the gradient of life-history strategies observed among species and argue that individual differences should always be accounted for in demographic studies of wild populations.
Data from: Delusions of grandeur: seed count is not a good fitness proxy under individual variation in phenology
The concept of fitness is central to evolutionary biology, yet it is difficult to define and to measure. In plant biology, fitness is often measured as seed count. However, under an array of circumstances, seed count may be a biased proxy of fitness; for example, when individuals vary in allocation to sexual vs. asexual reproduction. A more subtle example, but also likely to be important in natural populations, is when interindividual variation in conditions during development results in variation in offspring quality among seed parents. In monocarpic (semelparous) plants, this is expected to result from variation in effective season length experienced among individuals that reach reproductive maturity at different times. Here, we manipulate growing season length to ask whether seed count is an accurate representation of parental fitness in the monocarpic herb Lobelia inflata. Simple seed count suggests a paradoxical fitness advantage under constrained season length. However, we find that the apparent fitness advantage of a constrained season length is overridden by low relative per-seed fitness. Furthermore, the fitness deficit in the constrained environment is associated primarily with an accelerating decrease in viability and seedling survival in seeds derived from fruits produced progressively later in the season. In this study, the overall fitness value of a seed under a constrained season is 0.774 of that observed under a long season.
Data from: Individual and population fitness consequences associated with large carnivore use of residential development
<p><span>Large carnivores are negotiating increasingly developed landscapes, but little is known about how such behavioral plasticity influences their demographic rates and population trends. Some investigators have suggested that the ability of carnivores to behaviorally adapt to human development will enable their persistence, and yet, others have suggested that such landscapes are likely to serve as population sinks or ecological traps. To understand how plasticity in black bear (<i>Ursus americanus</i>) use of residential development influences their population dynamics, we conducted a 6 year study near Durango, Colorado, USA. </span>Using space-use data on individual bears, we examined the influence of use of residential development on annual measures of bear body fat, cub productivity, cub survival and adult female survival, after accounting for variation in natural food availability and individual attributes (e.g., age). We then used our field-based vital rate estimates to parameterize a matrix model that simulated asymptotic population growth for bears using residential development to different degrees. We found that bear use of residential development was highly variable within and across years, with bears increasing their foraging within development when natural foods were scarce. Increased bear use of development was associated with increased body fat and cub productivity, but reduced cub and adult survival.<span> When these effects were simultaneously incorporated into a matrix model </span>we found that the population was projected to decline as bear use of development increased, given that the costs of reduced survival outweighed the benefits of enhanced productivity. Our results provide a mechanistic understanding of how black bear use of residential development exerts opposing effects on different bear fitness traits and a negative effect on population growth, with the magnitude of those effects mediated by variation in environmental conditions. They also highlight the importance of monitoring bear population dynamics, particularly as shifts in bear behavior are likely to drive increases in human-bear conflicts and the perception of growing bear populations. Finally, our work emphasizes the need to consider the demographic viability of large carnivore populations when promoting the coexistence of people and carnivores on shared landscapes.</p>
Data from: Luck in food-finding affects individual performance and population trajectories
Energy harvesting by animals is important because it provides the power needed for all metabolic processes. Beyond this, efficient food-finding enhances individual fitness [1] and population viability [2], although rates of energy accumulation are affected by the environment and food distribution. Typically, differences between individuals in the rate of food acquisition are attributed to varying competencies [3] even though food encounter rates are known to be probabilistic [4]. We used animal-attached technology to quantify food intake in four disparate free-living vertebrates (condors, cheetahs, penguins and sheep) and found that inter-individual variability depended critically on the probability of food encounter. We modelled this to reveal that animals taking rarer food, such as apex predators and scavengers, are particularly susceptible to breeding failure because this variability results in larger proportions of the population failing to accrue the necessary resources for their young before they starve, and because even small changes in food abundance can affect this variability disproportionately. A test of our model on wild animals indicated why Magellanic penguins have a stable population while the congeneric African penguin population has declined for decades. We suggest that such models predicting probabilistic ruin can help predict the fortunes of species operating under globally changing conditions.
Learning from dynamic traits: Seasonal shifts yield insights into ecophysiological tradeoffs across scales from macroevolutionary to intra-individual
<p><strong>Premise of the Research.</strong> Phylogenetic comparative methods provide a powerful approach for exploring the macroevolution of plant functional traits. Such approaches can uncover trait-trait correlations through evolutionary time, as well as provide evidence of the role of traits in adaptation across environmental gradients. For continuous traits, most phylogenetic comparative approaches to date employ a single trait value per species, often a mean of sampled individuals, or alternatively incorporate intraspecific variation as a distribution around such a mean. It has been known for quite some time that many of the most physiologically and ecologically important plant traits are actually highly plastic, changing dynamically across a growing season, with whole-plant development, or in response to environmental conditions. Here we demonstrate one possible approach to assessing the evolution of such dynamic traits, the use of function-valued phylogenetic comparative methods.<br> <strong>Methodology.</strong> Leaf traits were sampled across 25 taxa in the genus <em>Cornus</em> at six time points throughout the growing season in a common garden context, followed by contrasting sets of alternative analyses to demonstrate the consequences of researcher decisions on study conclusions.<br> <strong>Pivotal Results. </strong>The vast majority of assessed traits exhibit substantial seasonal shifts. These shifts cause traditional macroevolutionary correlations assessed at different sampling dates to yield conflicting results. Function-valued approaches indicate that seasonal shifts in many traits are evolutionarily correlated, with implications for the origin of trait-trait tradeoffs. Seasonal trait plasticity is also evolutionarily correlated with native habitat environmental gradients across <em>Cornus</em>.<br> <strong>Conclusions.</strong> Because a very large number of plant functional traits are not fixed, but vary dynamically over time or with environmental conditions, stronger insights into the evolution of plant functional traits can emerge when this dynamism is explicitly incorporated into phylogenetic comparative approaches. We encourage the adoption of such approaches, as well as the development of better tools for doing so.</p>
Data from: Inter-individual spacing affects the finder's share in ring-tailed coatis (Nasua nasua)
<p>Social foraging models are often used to explain how group size can affect an individual's food intake rate and foraging strategies. The proportion of food eaten before the arrival of conspecifics, the finder's share, is hypothesized to play a major role in shaping group geometry, foraging strategy, and feeding competition. The variables which affect the finder's share in ring-tailed coatis were tested using a series of food trials. The number of grapes in the food trials had a strong negative effect on the finder's share and the probability that the finder was joined. The effect of group size on the finder's share and foraging success was not straightforward, and was mediated by socio-spatial factors. The finder's share increased when the time to arrival of the next individual was longer, the group was more spread out, and the finder was in the back of the group. Similarly, the total amount of food eaten at a trial was higher when more grapes were placed, arrival time was longer, and number of joiners was smaller. Individuals at the front edge of the group found far more food trials, but foraging success was higher at the back of the group where there were fewer conspecifics to join them. This study highlights the importance of social spacing strategies and group geometry on animal foraging tactics and the costs and benefits of sociality.</p>
Data from: Statistically testing the role of individual learning and decision-making in trapline foraging
Trapline foraging, a behavior consisting of repeated visitation to spatially fixed resources in a predictable sequence, has been observed over diverse taxa and is important ecologically for efficient resource gathering. Despite this, few null models exist to test the significance of suspected traplines, particularly for studies interested in the role of individual decision-making in the formation of traplines versus the role of resource layouts and random movement patterns. Here we present a spatially explicit, individual-based null model, which may be used to test whether resource layout and realistic forager movement may account for sequence repeats in suspected traplines. In our model, we generate resource visitation sequences by modeling a forager without spatial memory using a random walk to discover and visit spatially-fixed resources. We quantify traplining using Determinism, a metric derived from recurrence quantification analysis. Using both simulated and empirical bee foraging data, we compared our model with two existing null models—a completely random model and a sample randomization model. The former creates null sequences by randomly selecting available resources, while the latter randomizes the order of visits in observed sequences. We found that our model has a higher propensity of being (correctly) rejected than a sample randomization model for trapliners, and a lower propensity of being (incorrectly) rejected for non-trapliners compared to a completely random model. The use of a spatially explicit individual-based null model to test the statistical significance of patterns in empirical data is a novel approach that may be useful for other spatial and individual-based processes.
Differences in oxidative status explain variation in thermal acclimation capacity between individual zebrafish (Danio rerio)
1. Evolutionary theory predicts that the capacity to acclimate should be favoured in variable environments. However, perfect compensation for thermal variation is rare and the capacity for thermal acclimation can vary considerably between individuals within natural populations. This variation may be explained by costs associated with acclimation, but it is not clear what these costs are. 2. We tested the hypothesis that oxidative stress is a cost of acclimation that could explain the variation between individuals in acclimation capacity. We acclimated individual mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki, n = 416) to 18oC and 28oC sequentially, and determined swimming performance at each temperature to evaluate their acclimation capacity. Fish were then acclimated to either cold (18oC) or warm (28oC) conditions, and we increased antioxidant capacities of a subset of fish experimentally by administering N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). We measured H2O2 production, catalase antioxidant activities, and oxidative damage to proteins and membranes. 3. We show that there is significant variation in acclimation capacity between individuals, and that there is a trade-off between acclimation capacity and swimming performance in warm conditions. Mean swimming performance across both acclimation temperatures increased with increasing acclimation capacity, but the increase was small biologically. Hence, greater thermal plasticity (high acclimation capacity) resulted in only minor performance benefits across acclimation conditions. We verified this rather surprising result in replicate populations grown in outdoor mesocosms. 4. ROS production, antioxidant activities, and oxidative damage were higher in cold-acclimated fish, and particularly in those fish with low capacity for acclimation. However, experimentally increasing antioxidant capacities with NAC alleviated these changes to oxidative status, suggesting a causal relationship. Hence, oxidative stress may be a cost that constrains the capacity for acclimation. Together, the performance trade-off and oxidative cost indicate that phenotypic plasticity is not always advantageous in variable environments, and instead bet-hedging may be a more beneficial strategy, particularly in short-lived species.
Data from: Clonal evolution and genome stability in a 2,500-year-old fungal individual
Individuals of the basidiomycete fungus Armillaria are well-known for their ability to spread from woody substrate to substrate on the forest floor through the growth of rhizomoprhs. Here we made 248 collections of A. gallica in one locality in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. To identify individuals, we genotyped collections with molecular markers and somatic compatibility testing. We found several different individuals in proximity to one another, but one genetic individual stood out as exceptionally large, covering hundreds of tree root systems over approximate 75 hectares of forest floor. Based on observed growth rates of the fungus, we estimate the minimum age of the large individual as 2,500 years. With whole-genome sequencing and variant discovery, we also found that mutation had occurred within the somatic cells of the individual, reflecting its historical pattern of growth from a single point. The overall rate of mutation over the 90 mb genome, however, was extremely low. This same individual was first discovered in the late 1980s, but its full spatial extent and internal mutation dynamic was unkown at that time. The large individual of A. gallica has been remarkably resistant to genomic change as it has persisted in place.
Direct assessment of the acidity of individual surface hydroxyls_experimental dadaset
<p>This dataset contains the raw experimental data for the article "Direct assessment of the acidity of individual surface hydroxyls" by Margareta Wagner, Bernd Meyer, Martin Setvin, Michael Schmid & Ulrike Diebold in <a href="https://www.nature.com/"><em>Nature</em></a> <strong>volume 592</strong>, pages722–725 (2021). </p>
Stone Low Poly 17 individual free download
Part of a project. Stones for games , only 2k, 17 individual stones. Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab
Qasr Hallabat Cistern Individual 1 Pelvis View 2
This L pelvis fragment was recovered from a cistern within Qasr Hallabat, Jordan and dates to the 8th - 10th centuries AD. 3D modeling and photography of this element was conducted under a permanent loan agreement between the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and East Carolina University. Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab
Adjudicating between face-coding models with individual-face fMRI responses: Data and analysis software
<p>Computational model fits to human neuroimaging data. Please see included readme.txt file.</p>
ScienceDex guides
Understand access before you commit
These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.