Wearmouth Victoria J, Sims David W
Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth PL1 2PB, United Kingdom.
Adv Mar Biol. 2008;54:107-70. doi: 10.1016/S0065-2881(08)00002-3.
Sexual segregation occurs when members of a species separate such that the sexes live apart, either singly or in single-sex groups. It can be broadly categorised into two types: habitat segregation and social segregation. Sexual segregation is a behavioural phenomenon that is widespread in the animal kingdom yet the underlying causes remain poorly understood. Sexual segregation has been widely studied among terrestrial mammals such as ungulates, but it has been less well documented in the marine environment. This chapter clarifies terms and concepts which have emerged from the investigation of sexual segregation in terrestrial ecology and examines how a similar methodological approach may be complicated by differences of marine species. Here we discuss the behavioural patterns of sexual segregation among marine fish, reptile, bird and mammal species. Five hypotheses have been forwarded to account for sexual segregation, largely emerging from investigation of sexual segregation in terrestrial ungulates: the predation risk, forage selection, activity budget, thermal niche-fecundity and social factors hypotheses. These mechanisms are reviewed following careful assessment of their applicability to marine vertebrate species and case studies of marine vertebrates which support each mechanism recounted. Rigorous testing of all hypotheses is lacking from both the terrestrial and marine vertebrate literature and those analyses which have been attempted are often confounded by factors such as sexual body-size dimorphism. In this context, we indicate the value of studying model species which are monomorphic with respect to body size and discuss possible underlying causes for sexual segregation in this species. We also discuss why it is important to understand sexual segregation, for example, by illustrating how differential exploitation of the sexes by humans can lead to population decline.
当一个物种的成员分开，使得两性单独生活或生活在单性群体中时，就会发生性别隔离。它大致可分为两类：栖息地隔离和社会隔离。性别隔离是一种在动物王国中广泛存在的行为现象，但其根本原因仍知之甚少。性别隔离在有蹄类等陆生哺乳动物中已得到广泛研究，但在海洋环境中的记录较少。本章阐明了在陆地生态学中对性别隔离调查中出现的术语和概念，并研究了类似的方法如何因海洋物种的差异而变得复杂。在这里，我们讨论了海洋鱼类、爬行动物、鸟类和哺乳动物物种中的性别隔离行为模式。已经提出了五个假说来解释性别隔离，这些假说主要源于对陆生有蹄类动物性别隔离的研究：捕食风险、觅食选择、活动预算、热生态位-繁殖力和社会因素假说。在仔细评估这些机制对海洋脊椎动物物种的适用性以及支持每种机制的海洋脊椎动物案例研究后，对这些机制进行了综述。陆生和海洋脊椎动物文献都缺乏对所有假说的严格测试，并且那些已经尝试的分析往往因诸如两性体型差异等因素而混淆。在此背景下，我们指出了研究体型单态的模式物种的价值，并讨论了该物种中性别隔离可能的潜在原因。我们还讨论了理解性别隔离为何重要，例如，通过说明人类对两性的不同利用如何导致种群数量下降。
