Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA, USA ; Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Evol Appl. 2013 Sep;6(6):865-74. doi: 10.1111/eva.12072. Epub 2013 May 8.
Environmentally imposed selection pressures are well known to shape animal signals. Changes in these signals can result in recognition mismatches between individuals living in different habitats, leading to reproductive divergence and speciation. For example, numerous studies have shown that differences in avian song may be a potent prezygotic isolating mechanism. Typically, however, detailed studies of environmental pressures on variation in animal behavior have been conducted only at small spatial scales. Here, we use remote-sensing data to predict animal behavior, in this case, bird song, across vast spatial scales. We use remotely sensed data to predict the song characteristics of the little greenbul (Andropadus virens), a widely distributed African passerine, found across secondary and mature rainforest habitats and the rainforest-savanna ecotone. Satellite data that captured ecosystem structure and function explained up to 66% of the variation in song characteristics. Song differences observed across habitats, including those between human-altered and mature rainforest, have the potential to lead to reproductive divergence, and highlight the impacts that both natural and anthropogenic change may have on natural populations. Our approach offers a novel means to examine the ecological correlates of animal behavior across large geographic areas with potential applications to both evolutionary and conservation biology.
环境施加的选择压力是众所周知的，可以塑造动物的信号。这些信号的变化可能导致生活在不同栖息地的个体之间出现识别不匹配，从而导致生殖分歧和物种形成。例如，许多研究表明，鸟类歌声的差异可能是一种有效的合子前隔离机制。然而，通常情况下，对动物行为的环境压力的详细研究仅在小的空间尺度上进行。在这里，我们使用遥感数据来预测动物行为，在这种情况下，是鸟类的歌声，跨越广阔的空间尺度。我们使用遥感数据来预测广泛分布于非洲的绿雀（Andropadus virens）的歌声特征，这种雀类分布于次生林和成熟雨林栖息地以及雨林-稀树草原生态过渡带。捕捉生态系统结构和功能的卫星数据解释了歌声特征变化的 66%。在栖息地之间观察到的歌声差异，包括人为干扰和成熟雨林之间的差异，有可能导致生殖分歧，并强调了自然和人为变化可能对自然种群产生的影响。我们的方法提供了一种新颖的手段，可以在大地理区域内研究动物行为的生态相关性，对进化生物学和保护生物学都有潜在的应用。
