Find research datasets worth reusing

Data set for: Behavioral traits that define social dominance are the same that reduce social influence in a consensus task

Dominant individuals are often most influential in their social groups, affecting movement, opinion, and performance across species and contexts. Yet behavioral traits like aggression, intimidation, and coercion, which are associated with and in many cases define dominance, can be socially aversive. The traits that make dominant individuals influential in one context may therefore reduce their influence in other contexts. Here we examine this association between dominance and influence using the cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni, comparing the influence of dominant and subordinate males during normal social interactions and in a more complex group-consensus association task. We find that phenotypically dominant males are aggressive, socially central, and that these males have a strong influence over normal group movement, whereas subordinate males are passive, socially peripheral, and have little influence over normal movement. However, subordinate males have the greatest influence in generating group-consensus during the association task. Dominant males are spatially distant and have lower signal-to-noise ratios of informative behavior in the association task, potentially interfering with their ability to generate group-consensus. In contrast, subordinate males are physically close to other group members, have a high signal-to-noise ratio of informative behavior, and equivalent visual connectedness to their group as dominant males. The behavioral traits that define effective social influence are thus highly context-specific and can be dissociated with social dominance. Thus, processes of hierarchical ascension in which the most aggressive, competitive, or coercive individuals rise to positions of dominance may be counter-productive in contexts where group-performance is prioritized.

Data from: Testing models of reciprocal relations between social influence and integration in STEM across the college years

The present study tests predictions from the Tripartite Integration Model of Social Influences (TIMSI) concerning processes linking social interactions to social integration into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) communities and careers. Students from historically overrepresented groups in STEM were followed from their senior year of high school through their senior year in college. Based on TIMSI, we hypothesized that interactions with social influence agents (operationalized as mentor network diversity, faculty mentor support, and research experiences) would promote both short- and long-term integration into STEM via social influence processes (operationalized as science self-efficacy, identity, and internalized community values). Moreover, we examined the previously untested hypothesis of reciprocal influences from early levels of social integration in STEM to future engagement with social influence agents. Results of a series of longitudinal structural equation model-based mediation analyses indicate that, in the short term, higher levels of faculty mentorship support and research engagement, and to a lesser degree more diverse mentor networks in college promote deeper integration into the STEM community through the development of science identity and science community values. Moreover, results indicate that, in the long term, earlier high levels of integration in STEM indirectly influences research engagement through the development of higher science identity. These results extend our understanding of the TIMSI framework and advance our understanding of the reciprocal nature of social influences that draw students into STEM careers.

Effect of ecological factors on fine-scale patterns of social structure in African lions

1. Environmental variations can influence the extent to which individuals interact with other individuals by changing the value of grouping. It is well known that many species can form and disband groups, often in response to the distribution and abundance of resources. 2. While previous studies showed that resources influence the broad-scale structure of animal groups, knowledge gaps remain on whether they affect fine-scale patterns of association among individuals within groups. 3. We quantify association patterns in African lions while simultaneously monitoring the abundance and distribution of prey. We test how social and ecological factors, including individual trait (age, sex, reproductive state) similarity and prey availability (prey abundance, dispersion, herd size and body size) affect within-pride social structure in African lions. 4. We found that individual decisions about associates depended on resource availability with individuals associating equally across all members of the pride when prey herds were scarce, aggregated or large bodied, and associating more exclusively (in subgroups of preferred associates) when prey herds were abundant, dispersed or small bodied. Individuals within lion prides seemed to be buffering against changes in prey availability by modulating their strength and density of connections with conspecifics when prides split into subgroups. The strength and density of connections among individuals within subgroups was greater when prey herds were large and lower when prey herds were dispersed or large bodied. 5. Our findings suggest that individual lions are making social decisions at both the subgroup level and the pride level, with decisions representing putatively fitness-enhancing strategies. Individuals were typically shifting between having few strong connections and having many weaker connections depending on prevailing ecological conditions, with prey abundance, dispersion and body size having the greatest impact on decisions about splitting into subgroups. The maintenance of connections within prides and subgroups in the face of ecological change suggests that the fission-fusion nature of lion prides might be essential for the long-term maintenance of social connections even when short-term conditions do not allow them. More broadly, our study reveals how fission-fusion dynamics and ecological factors can simultaneously have an effect on animals across multiple levels of sociality. 29-Jul-2020

openother-openAug 2020View details →

poojaruhal/RP-commenting-practices-social-media: RP-commenting-practices-social-media: RP_TOSEM_2020 v.1.0.1 Second release of of the replication Package for the paper "What do Developers Discuss about Code Comment Conventions on Social Media"

RP-commenting-practices-social-media Replication Package for the paper "What do Developers Discuss about Code Comment Conventions on Social Media?" Structure <pre><code>Paper-presenation.pdf Makar_tool/ Data/ stackoverfow_questions_with_answers_by_tags.csv stackoverfow_tags_metrics.csv apache_mailing_list.csv mailing_lists_ASF_@dev_@users_1.csv mailing_lists_ASF_@dev_@users_2.csv quora.csv sample_stackoverfow_questions_with_answers_by_tags.csv Schemas/ apache_mailing_lists.json quora.json stackoverfow_questions_answers_by_tag.json stackoverfow_tag_count.json stackoverfow_tag_metrics.json RQ1/ LDA_input/ stackoverfow_raw_dataset.csv LDA_output/ Mallet/ output_csv/ docs-in-topics.csv topic-words.csv topics-in-docs.csv topics-metadata.csv output_html/ all_topics.html Docs/ Topics/ RQ2/ datasource_rawdata/ mailing_lists_selection_criteria.csv quora.csv stackoverflow.csv manual_analysis_output/ stackoverflow_quora_taxonomy.xlsx </code></pre> Contents of the Replication Package Paper-presenation.pdf presents the highlights of the work in a presenation. Makar_tool/ contains the data processed using the tool for the study <ul> <li> Data/ <ul> <li><code>stackoverfow_questions_with_answers_by_tags.csv</code> - all stackoverflow questions used in the study as stored in Makar <ul> <li><code>stackoverfow_tags_metrics.csv</code> - all data containing the calculations done for stackoverflow tag selection</li> <li><code>apache_mailing_list.csv</code> - statistically significant sample of <code>mailing_lists_ASF_@dev_@users_1.csv</code> and <code>mailing_lists_ASF_@dev_@users_2.csv</code> used in the study</li> <li><code>mailing_lists_ASF_@dev_@users_1.csv</code> - mailing list data used in the study as stored in Makar (part 1)</li> <li><code>mailing_lists_ASF_@dev_@users_2.csv</code> - mailing list data used in the study as stored in Makar (part 2)</li> <li><code>quora.csv</code> - all quora questions used in the study as stored in Makar</li> <li><code>sample_stackoverfow_questions_with_answers_by_tags</code> - statistically significant sample of <code>stackoverfow_questions_with_answers_by_tags.csv</code> used in the study</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li> Schemas/ <ul> <li><code>apache_mailing_lists.json</code> - data schema used in Makar to store mailing list data</li> <li><code>quora.json</code> - data schema used in Makar to store quora data</li> <li><code>stackoverfow_questions_answers_by_tag.json</code> - data schema used in Makar to store stackoverflow questions data</li> <li><code>stackoverfow_tag_count.json</code> - data schema used in Makar to lookup number of questions per tag available in stackoverflow</li> <li><code>stackoverfow_tag_metrics.json</code> - data schema used in Makar to stackoverflow tag metrics data</li> </ul> </li> <li> RQ1/ - contains the data used to answer RQ1 <ul> <li>LDA_input/ - input data used for LDA analysis <ul> <li><code>stackoverfow_raw_dataset.csv</code> - stackoverflow questions used to perform LDA analysis</li> </ul> </li> <li>LDA_output/ <ul> <li>Mallet/ - contains the LDA output generated by MALLET tool <ul> <li>output_csv/ <ul> <li><code>docs-in-topics.csv</code> - documents per topic</li> <li><code>topic-words.csv</code> - most relevant topic words</li> <li><code>topics-in-docs.csv</code> - topic probability per document</li> <li><code>topics-metadata.csv</code> - metadata per document and topic probability <ul> <li>output_html/ - Browsable results of mallet output</li> </ul> </li> <li><code>all_topics.html</code></li> <li><code>Docs/</code></li> <li><code>Topics/</code></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li> RQ2/ - contains the data used to answer RQ2 <ul> <li>datasource_rawdata/ - contains the raw data for each source <ul> <li><code>mailing_lists_selection_criteria.csv</code> - criteria used to select mailing_lists.</li> <li><code>quora.csv</code> - contains the processed dataset (like removing HTML tags). To know more about the preprocessing steps, please refer to the reproducibility section in the paper. The data is preprocessed using Makar tool.</li> <li><code>stackoverflow.csv</code> - contains the processed stackoverflow dataset. To know more about the preprocessing steps, please refer to the reproducibility section in the paper. The data is preprocessed using Makar tool.</li> </ul> </li> <li>manual_analysis_output/ <ul> <li><code>stackoverflow_quora_taxonomy.xlsx</code> - contains the classified dataset of stackoverflow and quora and description of taxonomy. <ul> <li><code>Taxonomy</code> - contains the description of the first dimension and second dimension categories. Second dimension categories are further divided into levels, separated by <code>|</code> symbol.</li> <li><code>stackoverflow-posts</code> - the questions are labelled relevant or irrelevant and categorized into the first dimension and second dimension categories. <ul> <li><code>quota-posts</code> - the questions are labelled relevant or irrelevant and categorized into the first dimension and second dimension categories.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul>

Competitive advantage of rare behaviors induces adaptive diversity rather than social conformity in skill learning

Recent studies have emphasized the role of social learning and cultural transmission in promoting conformity and uniformity in animal groups, but little attention has been given to the role of negative frequency-dependent learning in impeding conformity and promoting diversity instead. Here we show experimentally that under competitive conditions, that are common in nature, social foragers (although capable of social learning) are likely to develop diversity in foraging specialization rather than uniformity. Naïve house sparrows that were introduced into groups of foraging specialists did not conform to the behaviour of the specialists but, rather, learned to use the alternative food-related cues, thus forming groups of complementary specialists. We further show that individuals in such groups may forage more effectively in diverse environments. Our results suggest that when the benefit from socially acquired skills diminishes through competition in a negative frequency-dependent manner, animal societies will become behaviourally diverse rather than uniform.

opencc-zeroJan 2020View details →

Social bonds, social status and survival in wild baboons: a tale of two sexes

People who are more socially integrated or have higher socio-economic status live longer. Recent studies in nonhuman primates show striking convergences with this human pattern: female primates with more social partners, stronger social bonds or higher dominance rank all lead longer lives. However, it remains unclear whether social environments also predict survival in male nonhuman primates, as it does in men. This gap persists because, in most primates, males disperse among social groups, resulting in many males who disappear with unknown fate and have unknown dates of birth. We present a Bayesian model to estimate the effects of time-varying social covariates on age-specific adult mortality in both sexes of wild baboons. We compare how the survival trajectories of both sexes are linked to social bonds and social status over the life. We find that, parallel to females, male baboons who are more strongly bonded to females have longer lifespans. However, males with higher dominance rank for their age appear to have shorter lifespans. This finding brings new understanding to the adaptive significance of heterosexual social bonds for male baboons: in addition to protecting the male's offspring from infanticide, these bonds may have direct benefits to males themselves.

opencc-zeroMay 2020View details →

Data from: Social facilitation can impact the responses of free-ranging dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) towards physical cognitive tasks

Dogs are known to persist less in problem-solving tasks independently. While most of the studies so far have reported results based on experiments in pet dogs, conclusive evidence from free-ranging subpopulations is lacking. Free-ranging dogs are primarily scavengers and require problem-solving abilities to survive. We provided dogs with a familiar or an unfamiliar task in the presence of conspecifics. Both the tasks provided a single food-reward upon solving. We coded success, latency, and the duration of active engagement of the dogs in this study. We compared them with an earlier published dataset where individual dogs were tested in identical experimental set-ups. Our findings show that dogs have higher success rates in both the familiar and unfamiliar tasks when tested in the presence of conspecifics than when alone, suggesting a role of social facilitation. Furthermore, the presence of conspecifics facilitated dogs to approach faster and engage longer in the unfamiliar task than when tested alone. We provide the first evidence that social facilitation may play a crucial role in free-ranging dogs, especially in the context of problem-solving.

Social competition stimulates cognitive performance in a sex-specific manner

Social interactions are thought to be a critical driver in the evolution of cognitive ability. Cooperative interactions, such as pair bonding, rather than competitive interactions have been largely implicated in the evolution of increased cognition. This is despite competition traditionally being a very strong driver of trait evolution. Males of many species track changes in their social environment and alter their reproductive strategies in response to anticipated levels of competition. We predict this to be cognitively challenging. Using a Drosophila melanogaster model we are able to distinguish between the effects of a competitive environment versus generic social contact by exposing flies to same-sex same-species competition vs different species partners, shown to pose non-competitive contacts. Males increase olfactory learning/memory and visual memory after exposure to conspecific males only, a pattern echoed by increased expression of synaptic genes and an increased need for sleep. For females, largely not affected by mating competition, the opposite pattern was seen. The results indicate that specific social contacts dependent on sex, not simply generic social stimulation, may be an important evolutionary driver for cognitive ability in fruit flies.

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2020View details →

Code and data associated with 'The web architecture, dynamics, and silk investment in the social spider, Stegodyphus sarasinorum'

Location of the main files and folders relevant to the paper: All R  based analyses were done with a combination of a Windows 8 laptop and a Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon. The nparLD analyses require R version 2.15.3, and the other analyses were done with R version 3.4.4. Multiple versions of R can be installed and run on the same system using the Rbuild and Renv packages. Please see the parts of the Rmd files describing the nparLD analyses to see how this was done. ## Silk investment and topology related analyses are in the folder 'web-construction FINAL round- raw data/analysis-FINALround/analysis-results/feb_2016_Rmdfiles/ R Markdown notebook files and associated HTML outputs used to replicate figures and results in paper: ### Pore-size and coordination number analysis - beleyur_et_al_topology_analyses.Rmd ### Silk investment and per-capita analyses - beleyur_et_al_silk_analyses.Rmd ### Weight-loss analysis - weight_loss_analysis.Rmd ### nparLD analysis scripts - poresize_CN_nparLD.R - silk_nparLD.R ## Coordination number and pore size calculations Code and data used to quantify the coordination number and pore size in 'AllResults.zip' - a combination of raw images, .mat data files and .m files that can be analysed using the MATLAB platform. All data and code in 'AllResults.zip'   ## Raw data location: 'web-construction FINAL round- raw data/pics-till 11th March/pics by date and batch/' All raw JPG images are placed according to their batch (A-J), and group size. Please note that not all webs can be finally analysed as having the labelled group size because despite all efforts spiders somehow managed to move between colonies in some cases! Please refer to the actual colonies used in the manuscript, these webs have definitely been built by the specified number of spiders. ## Hand-cropped images of only web with retreat 'web-construction FINAL round- raw data/pics-till 11th March/cropped_photos_in_one_place/' These are TIF files made after manual cropping of the web pictures. Please see the note above explaining how to choose the webs with valid group sizes.

openother-openSep 2020View details →

Replication package for «Business disruptions from social distancing»

Replication package for <blockquote> Koren, Miklós and Rita Pető. Business disruptions from social distancing; PLoS ONE 2020. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239113">https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239113</a>  </blockquote>

Adjacency matrices and nodal attributes for prestige and homophily predict network structure for social learning of medicinal plant knowledge

Human subsistence societies have thrived in environmental extremes while maintaining biodiversity through social learning of ecological knowledge, such as techniques to prepare food and medicine from local resources. However, there is limited understanding of which processes shape social learning patterns and configuration in ecological knowledge networks, or how these processes apply to resource management and biological conservation. In this study, we test the hypothesis that the prestige (rarity or exclusivity) of knowledge shapes social learning networks. In addition, we test whether people tend to select who to learn from based on prestige (knowledge or reputation), and homophily (e.g., people of the same age or gender). We used interviews to assess five types of medicinal plant knowledge and how 303 people share this knowledge across four villages in Solomon Islands. We developed exponential random graph models (ERGMs) to test whether hypothesized patterns of knowledge sharing based on prestige and homophily are more common in the observed network than in randomly simulated networks of the same size. We found that prestige predicts five hypothesized network configurations and all three hypothesized learning patterns, while homophily predicts one of three hypothesized network configurations and five of the seven hypothesized learning patterns. These results compare the strength of different prestige and homophily effects on social learning and show how cultural practices such as intermarriage can affect certain aspects of prestige and homophily. By advancing our understanding of how prestige and homophily affect ecological knowledge networks, we identify which social learning patterns have the largest effects on biocultural conservation of ecological knowledge.

Social rank modulates how environmental quality influences cooperation and conflict within animal societies

Although dominance hierarchies occur in most societies, our understanding of how these power structures influence individual investment in cooperative and competitive behaviors remains elusive. Both conflict and cooperation in animal societies are often environmentally-regulated, yet how individuals alter their cooperative and competitive investments as environmental quality changes remains unclear. Using game theoretic modeling, we predict that individuals of all ranks will invest more in cooperation and less in social conflict in harsh environments than individuals of the same ranks in benign environments. Counterintuitively, low ranking subordinates should increase their investment in cooperation proportionally more than high ranking dominants, suggesting that subordinates contribute relatively more when facing environmental challenges. We then test and confirm these predictions experimentally using the Asian burying beetle Nicrophorus nepalensis. Ultimately, we demonstrate how social rank modulates the relationships between environmental quality and cooperative and competitive behaviours, a topic crucial for understanding the evolution of complex societies.

Use of social media in the marketing of agricultural products and farmers' turnover in South-South Nigeria

The study investigated the use of social media in the marketing of agricultural products and farmers turnover in South-South Nigeria. The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which the usage of social media in the marketing of agricultural products in Nigeria can enhance efficiency and farmers' sales turnover. It employed the survey research design and data were collected with the help of a structured questionnaire. Research data were analysed using t-test and least square method. The results showed that the use of social media (Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) in the marketing of agricultural products enhances efficiency and turnover of farmers through a significant reduction in the cost of marketing agricultural products as well as increased awareness and the attendant increase in demand for agricultural produce.

Data from: Expressed vomeronasal type-1 receptors (V1rs) in bats uncover conserved sequences underlying social chemical signaling

In mammals, social and reproductive behaviors are mediated by chemical cues encoded by hyperdiverse families of receptors expressed in the vomeronasal organ. Between species, the number of intact receptors can vary by orders of magnitude. However, the evolutionary processes behind variation in receptor number, and its link to fitness-related behaviors are not well understood. From vomeronasal transcriptomes, we discovered the first evidence of intact vomeronasal type-1 receptor (V1r) genes in bats, and we tested whether putatively functional bat receptors were orthologous to those of related taxa, or whether bats have evolved novel receptors. Instead of lineage-specific duplications, we found that bat V1rs in bats show high levels of orthology to those of their relatives, and receptors are under comparative levels of purifying selection compared to non-bats. Despite widespread vomeronasal organ loss in bats, V1r copies have been retained for >65 million years. The highly conserved nature of bat V1rs challenges our current understanding of mammalian V1r function and suggest roles other than conspecific recognition or mating initiation in social behavior.

Data from: Collective aggressiveness limits colony persistence in high but not low elevation sites in Amazonian social spiders

Identifying the traits that foster group survival in contrasting environments is important for understanding local adaptation in social systems. Here we evaluate the relationship between the aggressiveness of social spider colonies and their persistence along an elevation gradient using the Amazonian spider, Anelosimus eximius. We found that colonies of A. eximius exhibit repeatable differences in their collective aggressiveness (latency to attack prey stimuli), and that colony aggressiveness is linked with persistence in a site-specific manner. Less aggressive colonies are better able to persist at high-elevation sites, which lack colony-sustaining large-bodied prey, whereas colony aggression was not related to chance of persistence at low-elevation sites. This suggests that low aggressiveness promotes colony survival in high-elevation, prey-poor habitats, perhaps via increased tolerance to resource limitation. These data reveal that the collective phenotypes that relate to colony persistence vary by site, and thus, the path of social evolution in these environments is likely to be affected.

Data from: Finding clarity in ecological outcomes using empirical integrated social-ecological systems: a case study of agriculture-dependent grassland birds

1. Efforts to monitor and conserve populations and ecosystems in human-dominated landscapes can benefit from an empirical social-ecological systems approach. 2. Here we illustrate how latent variable structural equation modelling of regional time series data can effectively describe interconnected drivers of population fluctuations in dynamic landscapes and can help to reveal previously unknown system drivers. 3. Using a declining farmland-dependent bird species (Ammodramus savannarum) in the eastern United States (1994-2015) as a case study, our analysis reveals how farm management decisions drive population fluctuations (R2 = 20%), while management is in turn highly influenced by climate (R2 = 23-51%), but not by regional conservation spending. 4. Synthesis and applications. Structural equation modelling revealed potential social-ecological pathways for halting regional population declines in a grassland bird, the Grasshopper Sparrow. Lower population growth rates followed years of higher hay yields (~4 percentage points per metric ton increase in hay yield) and later harvests (~2 percentage points per 10-day delay in harvest). Thus, one pathway for stabilising regional populations could involve compensating farmers for reducing hay harvests, potentially requiring a six-fold increase in current annual agri-environmental conservation spending.

Personality composition determines social learning pathways within shoaling fish

In shaping how individuals explore their environment and interact with others, personality may mediate both individual and social learning. Yet increasing evidence indicates that personality expression is contingent on social context, suggesting that group personality composition may be key in determining how individuals learn about their environment. Here, we used recovery latency following simulated predator attacks to identify Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) that acted in a consistently bold or shy manner. We then employed network-based diffusion analysis to track the spread of a novel foraging behaviour through groups containing different proportions of bold and shy fish. Informed associates promoted learning to a greater extent in bold individuals, but only within groups composed predominately of bold fish. As the proportion of shy fish within groups increased, bold individuals instead emerged as especially effective demonstrators that facilitated learning in others. Individuals were also more likely to learn overall within shy-dominated groups than in bold-dominated ones. We demonstrate that how individuals learn is conditional on group personality composition, indicating that selection may favour traits enabling individuals to better match their behavioural phenotype to their social environment.

opencc-by-nc-4.0Oct 2020View details →

PolSentiLex: Sentiment Detection in Socio-Political Discussions on Russian Social Media

A Russian-language sentiment lexicon for social media discussions on political and social issues. The file contains raw markings collected with LINIS coding service <a href="https://linis-crowd.org">https://linis-crowd.org</a> [in Russian]. Learn more about PolSentiLex in our papers: <ul> <li> Koltsova, O., & Alexeeva, S. (2015). Linis-crowd.org: A lexical resource for Russian sentiment analysis of social media [Linis-crowd.org: Lexichesk resurs dl’a analiza tonal’nosti sotsial’no-politicheskix tekstov]. Computational Linguis- Tics and Computantional Ontologies: Proceedings of the XVIII Joint Conference “Internet and Modern Society (IMS-2015)” [Kompyuternaya Lingvistika i Vyichis- Litelnyie Ontologii: Sbornik Nauchnyih Statey. Trudyi XVIII Ob’edinennoy Konferen- Tsii «Internet i Sovremennoe Obschestvo» (IMS-2015)], 25–34. [in Russian] URL: <a href="https://scila.hse.ru/data/2020/06/02/1603986481/koltsovaoyuetal.pdf">https://scila.hse.ru/data/2020/06/02/1603986481/koltsovaoyuetal.pdf</a> </li> <li> Koltsova, O., Alexeeva, S., & Koltsov, S. (2016). An Opinion Word Lexicon and a Training Dataset for Russian Sentiment Analysis of Social Media. Computational Linguistics and Intellectual Technologies: Proceedings of the International Conference “Dialogue 2016”, 277–287. URL: <a href="http://www.dialog-21.ru/media/3400/koltsovaoyuetal.pdf">http://www.dialog-21.ru/media/3400/koltsovaoyuetal.pdf</a> </li> <li> Koltsova O., Alexeeva S., Pashakhin S., Koltsov S. (2020) PolSentiLex: Sentiment Detection in Socio-Political Discussions on Russian Social Media. In: Filchenkov A., Kauttonen J., Pivovarova L. (eds) Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language. AINL 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1292. Springer, Cham. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59082-6_1">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59082-6_1</a> </li> </ul>

opencc-zeroOct 2020View details →

Male-male behavioral interactions drive social-dominance mediated differences in ejaculate traits

Higher social status is expected to result in fitness benefits as it secures access to potential mates. In promiscuous species, male reproductive success is also determined by an individual's ability to compete for fertilization after mating by producing high quality ejaculates. However, the complex relationship between a male's investment in social status and ejaculates remains unclear. Here we examine how male social status influences ejaculate quality under a range of social contexts in the pygmy halfbeak Dermogenys cf. collettei, a small, group-living, internally fertilizing freshwater fish. We show that male social status influences ejaculate traits, both in the presence and absence of females. Dominant males produced faster swimming and more viable sperm, two key determinants of ejaculate quality, but only under conditions with frequent male-male behavioral interactions. When male-male interactions were experimentally reduced through the addition of a refuge, differences in ejaculate traits of dominant and subordinate males disappeared. Furthermore, dominant males were in better condition, growing faster and possessing larger livers, highlighting a possible condition-dependence of competitive traits. Contrary to expectations, female presence or absence did not affect sperm swimming speed or testes mass. Together, these results suggest a positive relationship between social status and ejaculate quality in halfbeaks, and highlight that the strength of behavioral interactions between males is a key driver of social-status dependent differences in ejaculate traits.

Data from: Ecological and social drivers of neighbor recognition and the dear enemy effect in a poison frog

Navigating social relationships frequently rests on the ability to recognize familiar individuals using phenotypic characteristics. Across diverse taxa, animals vary in their capacities for social recognition but the ecological and social sources of selection for recognition are often unclear. In a comparative study of two closely related species of poison frogs, we identified a species difference in social recognition of territory neighbors and investigated potential sources of selection underlying this difference. In response to acoustic playbacks, male golden rocket frogs (Anomaloglossus beebei) recognized the calls of neighbors and displayed a "dear enemy effect" by responding less aggressively to neighbors' calls than strangers' calls. In contrast, male Kai rocket frogs (Anomaloglossus kaiei) were equally aggressive to the calls of neighbors and strangers. This species difference in behavior is associated with key differences in reproductive ecology and characteristics of territories. Golden rocket frogs defend reproductive resources in the form of bromeliads, which is expected to create a threat asymmetry between neighbors and strangers favoring decreased aggression to neighbors. In contrast, Kai rocket frogs do not defend reproductive resources. Further, compared with Kai rocket frog territories, golden rocket frog territories occur at higher densities and are defended for longer periods of time, creating a more complex social environment with more opportunities for repeated but unnecessary aggression between neighbors, which should favor the ability to recognize and exhibit less aggression towards neighbors. These results suggest that differences in reproductive ecology can drive changes in social structure that select for social recognition.