Evolutionary Ecology Group, Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romania.
PLoS One. 2013 Apr 17;8(4):e60998. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060998. Print 2013.
Social behaviours are highly variable between species, populations and individuals. However, it is contentious whether behavioural variations are primarily moulded by the environment, caused by genetic differences, or a combination of both. Here we establish that biparental care, a complex social behaviour that involves rearing of young by both parents, differs between closely related populations, and then test two potential sources of variation in parental behaviour between populations: ambient environment and genetic differentiation. We use 2904 hours behavioural data from 10 geographically distinct Kentish (Charadrius alexandrinus) and snowy plover (C. nivosus) populations in America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa to test these two sources of behavioural variation. We show that local ambient temperature has a significant influence on parental care: with extreme heat (above 40 °C) total incubation (i.e. % of time the male or female incubated the nest) increased, and female share (% female share of incubation) decreased. By contrast, neither genetic differences between populations, nor geographic distances predicted total incubation or female's share of incubation. These results suggest that the local environment has a stronger influence on a social behaviour than genetic differentiation, at least between populations of closely related species.
社会行为在物种、种群和个体之间存在高度的可变性。然而，行为变异主要是由环境塑造的，还是由遗传差异引起的，或者是两者的结合，这一点仍存在争议。在这里，我们确定了亲代抚育是一种复杂的社会行为，涉及父母双方对幼仔的抚育，它在密切相关的种群之间存在差异，然后检验了种群之间亲代行为变化的两个潜在来源：环境和遗传分化。我们使用了来自美国、欧洲、中东和北非的 10 个地理上不同的肯特郡（Charadrius alexandrinus）和雪鹱（C. nivosus）种群的 2904 小时行为数据来检验这两个行为变异来源。我们发现当地环境温度对亲代抚育有显著影响：极端高温（超过 40°C）会增加总孵化（即雄性或雌性孵化巢的时间百分比），而雌性孵育（雌性孵育的百分比）则会减少。相比之下，种群之间的遗传差异或地理距离都不能预测总孵化或雌性孵育的比例。这些结果表明，在密切相关物种的种群之间，环境对社会行为的影响比遗传分化更强。
