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87 results for “social selection”
Selecting for infectivity across metapopulations can increase virulence in the social microbe Bacillus thuringiensis:data set.
<p>Passage experiments that sequentially infect hosts with parasites have long been used to manipulate virulence. However, for many invertebrate pathogens passage has been applied naively without a full theoretical understanding of how best to select for increased virulence and this has led to very mixed results. Understanding the evolution of virulence is complex because selection on parasites occurs across multiple spatial scales with potentially different conflicts operating on parasites with different life-histories. For example, in social microbes, strong selection on replication rate within hosts can lead to cheating and loss of virulence, because investment in public goods virulence reduces replication rate. </p> <p>In this study<em> </em>we tested how varying mutation supply and selection for infectivity or pathogen yield (population size in hosts) affected evolution of virulence against resistant hosts in the specialist insect pathogen <em>Bacillus thuringiensis</em>, aiming to optimize methods for strain improvement against a difficult to kill insect target. We show that selection for infectivity using competition between sub-populations in a metapopulation prevents social cheating, acts to retain key virulence plasmids and facilitates increased virulence. Increased virulence was associated with reduced efficiency of sporulation, and possible loss of function in putative regulatory genes but not with altered expression of the primary virulence factors. Selection in a metapopulation provides a broadly applicable tool for improving the efficacy of biocontrol agents. Moreover, a structured host population can facilitate artificial selection on infectivity, while selection on life history traits such as faster replication or larger population sizes can reduce virulence in social microbes.</p>
Data from: Selective social interactions and speed-induced leadership in schooling fish
<p>Experimental datasets for the manuscript:</p> <div>Puy, A., Gimeno, E., Torrents, J., Bartashevich, P., Miguel, M. C., Pastor-Satorras, R., & Romanczuk, P. (2024). Selective social interactions and speed-induced leadership in schooling fish. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, <em>121</em>(18), e2309733121.</div> <div> </div> <p>The datasets provide trajectories of fish. There are 2 recordings with N=39 fish (60 minutes duration) and 6 recordings with N=8 fish (30 minutes duration). The columns are as follows:</p> <ul> <li>Time [frame]: Time of the trajectory in frames.</li> <li>X_0 [px]: Position in the x-coordinate in pixels of the trajectory of individual 0.</li> <li>Y_0 [px]: Position in the y-coordinate in pixels of the trajectory of individual 0.</li> <li>X_1 [px]: Position in the x-coordinate in pixels of the trajectory of individual 1.</li> <li>Y_1 [px]: Position in the y-coordinate in pixels of the trajectory of individual 1.</li> <li>...</li> </ul> <p>Conversion to international units:</p> <ul> <li>50 frames = 1 s.</li> <li>2745 px= 100 cm.</li> </ul>
Supplementary material for "Playback experiments highlight the importance of nearest-neighbor distance and social information for nest site selection in the House Martin (Delichon urbicum)"
<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p> <p>Understanding nest site selection is crucial for species conservation. Bird conservation often involves installing nesting aids to increase nest site availability and induce colonization of unoccupied sites. However, prospecting individuals must find nesting aids, which may be facilitated by social information. Here, we investigated the effectiveness of artificial nests and playback in the declining, migratory House Martin <em>Delichon urbicum</em>. We selected unoccupied sites with artificial nests along a distance gradient to occupied sites and broadcasted conspecific vocalizations during prospection times of House Martins in both the post- and the following pre-breeding periods. Visitation and colonization rates increased considerably in proximity to occupied sites. Playback during the post-breeding and pre-breeding periods enhanced visitation rates, while pre-breeding-only and post-breeding-only playback had smaller positive effects. Colonization rate increased exclusively with pre-breeding-only playback. Colonized playback and non-playback sites had similar breeding success, indicating that playback did not create ecological traps by attracting House Martins to suboptimal sites. Hence, broadcasting conspecific vocalizations informs prospecting birds of nest site availability, thereby increasing visitation, and to some degree, colonization of unoccupied House Martin sites. To boost colonization, we recommend installing artificial House Martin nests within approximately 500 meters of occupied sites and using playback of conspecific vocalizations.</p>
Dataset for paper titled: Conceptual preferences can be transmitted via selective social information use between competing wild bird species
<p><a name="_Hlk66629591"></a><span>Concept learning is considered a high-level adaptive ability. Thus far, it has been studied in laboratory via asocial trial and error learning. Yet, social information use is common among animals but it remains unknown whether concept learning by observing others occurs. We tested whether pied flycatchers (</span><em><span>Ficedula hypoleuca</span></em><span>) form conceptual relationships from the apparent choices of nest-site characteristics (geometric symbol attached to the nest box) of great tits (</span><em><span>Parus major</span></em><span>). Each wild flycatcher female (n = 124) observed one tit pair that exhibited an apparent preference for either a large or a small symbol and was then allowed to choose between two nest boxes with a large and a small symbol, but the symbol shape was different to that on the tit nest. Older flycatcher females were more likely to copy the symbol size preference of tits than yearling flycatcher females when there was a high number of visible eggs or a few partially visible eggs in the tit nest. However, this depended on the phenotype; copying switched to rejection as a function of increasing body size. Possibly the quality of and overlap in resource use with the tits affected flycatchers' decisions. Hence, our results suggest that conceptual preferences can be horizontally transmitted across co-existing animals, which may increase the performance of individuals that utilize concept learning abilities in their decision-making.</span></p>
Multilevel selection on social network traits differs between sexes in experimental populations of forked fungus beetles
<p>Both individual and group behavior can influence individual fitness, but multilevel selection is rarely quantified on social behaviors. Social networks provide a unique opportunity to study multilevel selection on social behaviors, as they describe complex social traits and patterns of interaction at both the individual and group levels. In this study, we used contextual analysis to measure the consequences of both individual network position and group network structure on individual fitness in experimental populations of forked fungus beetles (<em>Bolitotherus</em> <em>cornutus</em>) with two different resource distributions. We found that males with high individual connectivity (strength) and centrality (betweenness) had higher mating success. However, group network structure did not influence their mating success. Conversely, we found that individual network position had no effect on female reproductive success but that females in populations with many social interactions experienced lower reproductive success. The strength of individual-level selection in males and group-level selection in females intensified when resources were clumped together, showing that habitat structure influences multilevel selection. Individual and emergent group social behavior both influence variation in components of individual fitness but impact male mating success and female reproductive success differently, setting up intersexual conflicts over patterns of social interactions at multiple levels. </p>
Dataset for paper titled: Conceptual preferences can be transmitted via selective social information use between competing wild bird species
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Multilevel selection on social network traits differs between sexes in experimental populations of forked fungus beetles
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Social network position experiences more variable selection than weaponry in wild subpopulations of forked fungus beetles
<p>1. The phenotypic expression and fitness consequences of behaviors that are exhibited during social interactions are especially sensitive to their local social context. This context-dependence is expected to generate more variation in the sign and magnitude of selection on social behavior than that experienced by static characters like morphology. Relatively few studies, however, have examined selection on behavioral traits in multiple populations. 2. We estimated sexual selection in the wild to determine if the strength and form of selection on social phenotypes is more variable than that on morphology. 3. We compared selection gradients on social network position, body size, and weaponry of male forked fungus beetles (Bolitotherus cornutus) as they influenced mating success across nine natural subpopulations. 4. Male horn length consistently experienced positive sexual selection. However, the sign and magnitude of selection on individual measures of network centrality (strength and betweenness) differed significantly among subpopulations. Moreover, selection on social behaviors occurred at local scale ("soft selection"), whereas selection on horn length occurred at the metapopulation scale ("hard selection"). 5. These results indicate that an individual with a given social phenotype could experience different fitness consequences depending on the network it occupies. While individuals seem to be unable to escape the fitness effects of their morphology, they may have the potential to mediate the pressures of selection on behavioral phenotypes by moving among subpopulations or altering social connections within a network.</p>
Data from: Social selectivity in aging wild chimpanzees
<p>Humans prioritize close, positive relationships during aging, and socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that this shift causally depend on capacities for thinking about personal future time horizons. To examine this theory, we tested for key elements of human social aging in longitudinal data on wild chimpanzees. Aging male chimpanzees have more mutual friendships characterized by high, equitable investment, whereas younger males have more one-sided relationships. Older males are more likely to be alone, but they also socialize more with important social partners. Further, males show a relative shift from more agonistic interactions to more positive, affiliative interactions over their life span. Our findings indicate that social selectivity can emerge in the absence of complex future-oriented cognition, and they provide an evolutionary context for patterns of social aging in humans.</p>
Data from: Complex selection on a regulator of social cognition: evidence of balancing selection, regulatory interactions and population differentiation in the prairie vole Avpr1a locus
Adaptive variation in social behavior depends upon standing genetic variation, but we know little about how evolutionary forces shape genetic diversity relevant to brain and behavior. In prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), variants at the Avpr1a locus predict expression of the vasopressin 1a receptor in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), a brain region that mediates spatial and contextual memory; cortical V1aR abundance in turn predicts diversity in space-use and sexual fidelity in the field. To examine the potential contributions of adaptive and neutral forces to variation at the Avpr1a locus, we explore sequence diversity at the Avpr1a locus and throughout the genome in two populations of wild prairie voles. First, we refine results demonstrating balancing selection at the locus by comparing the frequency spectrum of variants at the locus to a random sample of the genome. Next, we find that the four SNPs that predict high V1aR expression in the RSC are in stronger linkage disequilibrium than expected by chance despite high recombination among intervening variants, suggesting that epistatic selection maintains their association despite recombination. Analysis of population structure and a haplotype network for two populations revealed that this excessive LD was unlikely to be due to admixture alone. Furthermore, the two populations differed considerably in the region shown to be a regulator of V1aR expression despite the extremely low levels of genome-wide genetic differentiation. Together, our data suggest that complex selection on Avpr1a locus favors specific combinations of regulatory polymorphisms, maintains the resulting alleles at populations-specific frequencies, and may contribute to unique patterns of spatial cognition and sexual fidelity among populations.
Data from: Correlational selection on personality and social plasticity: morphology and social context determine behavioural effects on mating success
Despite a central line of research aimed at quantifying relationships between mating success and sexually dimorphic traits (e.g., ornaments), individual variation in sexually selected traits often explains only a modest portion of the variation in mating success. Another line of research suggests that a significant portion of the variation in mating success observed in animal populations could be explained by correlational selection, where the fitness advantage of a given trait depends on other components of an individual's phenotype and/or its environment. We tested the hypothesis that interactions between multiple traits within an individual (phenotype dependence) or between an individual's phenotype and its social environment (context dependence) can select for individual differences in behaviour (i.e., personality) and social plasticity. To quantify the importance of phenotype- and context-dependent selection on mating success, we repeatedly measured the behaviour, social environment and mating success of about 300 male stream water striders, Aquarius remigis. Rather than explaining individual differences in long-term mating success, we instead quantified how the combination of a male's phenotype interacted with the immediate social context to explain variation in hour-by-hour mating decisions. We suggest that this analysis captures more of the mechanisms leading to differences in mating success. Males differed consistently in activity, aggressiveness and social plasticity. The mating advantage of these behavioural traits depended on male morphology and varied with the number of rival males in the pool, suggesting mechanisms selecting for consistent differences in behaviour and social plasticity. Accounting for phenotype and context dependence improved the amount of variation in male mating success we explained statistically by 30–274%. Our analysis of the determinants of male mating success provides important insights into the evolutionary forces that shape phenotypic variation. In particular, our results suggest that sexual selection is likely to favour individual differences in behaviour, social plasticity (i.e., individuals adjusting their behaviour), niche preference (i.e., individuals dispersing to particular social conditions) or social niche construction (i.e., individuals modifying the social environment). The true effect of sexual traits can only be understood in interaction with the individual's phenotype and environment.
Journal Selection Factors and Opinions about Open Access of Austrian Researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences
<p>Data from the Study of Open Access Publishing Data (SOAP, http://bit.ly/ejuvKO) has been selected to explain why the uptake of Open Access publishing in the humanities and social sciences in Austria is reluctant compared to other fields. Two questions from the survey seemed to be especially relevant in this context: factors to choose a journal for publishing and general opinions about Open Access.</p>
Social network shrinking is explained by active and passive effects but not increasing selectivity with age in wild macaques
<p>Evidence of social disengagement, network narrowing, and social selectivity with advancing age in several non-human animals challenges our understanding of the causes of social ageing. Natural animal populations are needed to test whether social ageing and selectivity occur under natural predation and extrinsic mortality pressures, and longitudinal studies are particularly valuable to disentangle the contribution of within-individual ageing from the demographic processes that shape social ageing at the population level. Data on wild Assamese macaques (<em>Macaca assamensis</em>) were collected between 2013 and 2020 at the Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand. We investigated the social behaviour of 61 adult females observed for 13,270 hours to test several mechanistic hypotheses of social ageing and evaluated the consistency between patterns from mixed-longitudinal and within-individual analyses. With advancing age, females reduced the size of their social network, which could not be explained by an overall increase in the time spent alone, but by an age-related decline in mostly active, but also passive, behaviour, best demonstrated by within-individual analyses. A selective tendency to approach preferred partners was maintained into old age but did not increase. Our results contribute to our understanding of the driver of social ageing in natural animal populations and suggest that social disengagement and selectivity follow independent trajectories during ageing.</p>
Strength of sexual selection and sex roles vary between social groups in a coral reef cardinalfish
<p>The strength and direction of sexual selection can vary among populations. However, spatial variability is rarely explored at the level of the social group. Here we investigate sexual selection and sex roles in the paternally mouthbrooding, socially monogamous, and site-attached pajama cardinalfish, <em>Sphaeramia nematoptera</em>. Females were larger, more aggressive, and had a longer dorsal fin filament, indicating reversed sex roles. At the scale of social groups, we show the Bateman gradient and reproductive variance depending on the sex ratio and size of the groups. In small and medium-sized groups with balanced or male-biased sex ratios, Bateman gradients were steeper for females, whereas gradients were equally steep for both sexes in large groups or when the sex ratio was female-biased. For both sexes, reproductive variance increased with group size and with a higher male-to-female sex ratio. In <em>S. nematoptera</em>, mating opportunities outside the socially monogamous pair appear to impact sexual selection. We conclude that the strength and direction of sexual selection can be masked by social dynamics in group-living species when considering only population and large-scale demographic processes.</p>
Social interactions generate complex selection patterns in virtual worlds
<p>Understanding the influence of social interactions on individual fitness is key to improving our predictions of phenotypic evolution. However, we often overlook the different components of selection regimes arising from interactions among organisms, including social, correlational, and indirect selection. This is due to the challenging sampling efforts required in natural populations to measure phenotypes expressed during interactions and individual fitness. Furthermore, behaviours are crucial in mediating social interactions, yet few studies have explicitly quantified these selection components on behavioural traits. In this study, we capitalize on an online multiplayer videogame as a source of extensive data recording direct social interactions among prey, where prey collaborate to escape a predator in realistic ecological settings. We estimate natural and social selection and their contribution to total selection on behavioural traits mediating competition, cooperation, and predator-prey interactions. Behaviours of other prey in a group impact an individual's survival, and thus are under social selection. Depending on whether selection pressures on behaviours are synergistic or conflicting, social interactions enhance or mitigate the strength of natural selection, although natural selection remains the main driving force. Indirect selection through correlations among traits also contributed to the total selection. Thus, failing to account for the effects of social interactions and indirect selection would lead to a misestimation of the total selection acting on traits. Dissecting the contribution of each component to the total selection differential allowed us to investigate the causal mechanisms relating behaviour to fitness and quantify the importance of the behaviours of conspecifics as agents of selection. Our study emphasizes that social interactions generate complex selective regimes even in a relatively simple ecological environment.</p>
Experimental evidence that social information affects habitat selection in Marbled Murrelets
<p>Habitat selection decisions can impact individual fitness and ultimately scale up to mediate population dynamics. Understanding how birds select habitat is thus critical for discerning the biological processes structuring populations and developing conservation strategies, particularly for species in decline. Marbled Murrelet (<i>Brachyramphus marmoratus</i>; hereafter murrelet) populations have declined in recent decades due to loss of late-successional forest nesting habitat and changing ocean conditions that impact foraging success. Most other seabirds in the family Alcidae nest colonially and evidence suggests nesting murrelets may aggregate in stands, yet no studies have examined murrelet use of social information in nest site selection. In 2016 we experimentally simulated presence of murrelets at 14 randomly chosen potential breeding sites by broadcasting murrelet calls throughout the breeding period. Between broadcasting bouts, we recorded calls of wild murrelets and compared call rates with those recorded at 14 control sites (no broadcast). One year after playbacks ceased (2017) we conducted breeding season surveys to document behaviors indicative of murrelet breeding activity. Broadcasting murrelet calls in 2016 increased daily odds of wild murrelets vocalizing during the treatment period by up to 15.4× (95% CI = 2.3, 125.4) relative to control sites. During the 2017 breeding season, the odds of occupancy were 10.0× (CI = 1.2, 81.4) greater at treatment sites than control sites. These results indicate that social information influences murrelet breeding site selection because simulated conspecific presence in potential nesting habitat appeared to attract prospectors in 2016 that continued occupying treatment sites the following year. This conspecific attraction implies murrelet nesting sites are likely to remain occupied over time and that large tracts of nesting habitat may be important for supporting murrelet populations. Murrelets may also be susceptible to information-mediated Allee effects whereby a lack of conspecific information about nesting habitat could exacerbate long-term population declines.</p>
European badger (Meles meles) responses to low-intensity, selective culling: using mark recapture and relatedness data to assess social perturbation
<p>Culling the main wildlife host of bovine tuberculosis in Great Britain (GB) and Ireland, the European badger (Meles meles) to reduce infections in cattle, has been employed in both territories. In GB, this has been controversial, with results suggesting that culling induces disturbance to badger social structure, facilitating wider disease dissemination. Previous analyses hypothesized that even very low-level, selective culling may cause similar deleterious effects by increasing ranging of individuals and greater mixing between social-groups. To assess this hypothesis, a novel, prospective, landscape-scale 'before-and-after' Test and vaccinate or remove (TVR) study was implemented. Test-positive badgers were culled and test-negative badgers were BCG vaccinated and released. Mark-recapture metrics of badger ranging and genetic metrics of social group relatedness did not change significantly over the study period. However, selective culling was associated with a localised reduction in social-group relatedness in culled groups. Synthesis and application: Ecological context is important; extrapolation across territories and other disease epidemiological-systems (epi-systems) is likely to be challenging. However, we demonstrate that small-scale, selective removal of test-positive badgers was not associated with metrics of increased ranging but was associated with localised changes in social-group relatedness. This adds to the evidence base on badger control options for policy makers.</p>
Data and code for: Social phenotype-dependent selection of social environment in wild great and blue tits: An experimental study
<p>There is growing evidence that individuals actively assess the match between their phenotype and their environment when making habitat choice decisions (so-called matching habitat choice). However, to our knowledge, no studies have considered how the social environment may interact with social phenotype in determining habitat choice, despite habitat choice being an inherently social process and growing evidence for individual variation in sociability. We conducted an experiment using wild great and blue tits to understand how birds integrate their social phenotype and social environment when choosing where and how to feed. We used programmable feeders to (i) record social interactions and estimate social phenotype and (ii) experimentally manipulate the local density experienced by birds of differing social phenotype. By tracking feeder usage, we estimated how social environment and social phenotype predicted feeder choice and feeding behaviour. Both social environment and social phenotype predicted feeder usage, but a bird's decision to remain in a particular social environment did not depend on their social phenotype. In contrast, for feeding behaviour, responses to the social environment depended on social phenotype. Our results provide rare evidence of matching habitat choice and shed light on the dependence of habitat choice on between-individual differences in social phenotype.</p>
Social selection analysis reveals limited effect of neighbors' traits in Tree swallows
<p>Social interactions are ubiquitous in nature and can shape fitness of individuals through social selection. This type of selection arises when phenotypes of neighbors influence the fitness of a focal individual. Quantifying social selection is crucial to better characterise the overall selective landscape. For example, if intraspecific competition is strong, traits that are beneficial for an individual could be detrimental for competitors. In this study, we quantified social selection acting on four key ecological traits (body mass, wing length, laying date and clutch size) in wild Tree swallow (<em>Tachycineta bicolor)</em> females. We used reproductive success measured at three stages throughout the breeding season as fitness proxies to assess selection acting at those decisive moments. We also quantified the effects of environment on selection using measures of conspecifics' density, type of agricultural landscape and presence of interspecific competitors. Overall, we found no strong evidence of social selection on these traits in our study system, although there were marginally non-significant selection gradients suggesting positive effect of larger neighbors. Environmental variables affected reproductive success but did not affect social selection gradients. Our study calls for more social selection estimates to be reported across environments to better understand its importance in wild populations.</p>
Emotions of Social Eating for People with Selective Eating Habits (ESE1)
<p><strong><em>Emotions of Social Eating for </em></strong><strong><em>People with Selective Eating Habits (ESE1) data set</em></strong></p> <p> </p>
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