Biology Department, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA, 94631, USA
Biology Department, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA, 94631, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2018 Aug 19;373(1753). doi: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0249.
Many animals socialize in two or more major ecological contexts. In nature, these contexts often involve one situation in which space is more constrained (e.g. shared refuges, sleeping cliffs, nests, dens or burrows) and another situation in which animal movements are relatively free (e.g. in open spaces lacking architectural constraints). Although it is widely recognized that an individual's characteristics may shape its social life, the extent to which architecture constrains social decisions within and between habitats remains poorly understood. Here we developed a novel, automated-monitoring system to study the effects of personality, life-history stage and sex on the social network structure of a facultatively social mammal, the California ground squirrel () in two distinct contexts: aboveground where space is relatively open and belowground where it is relatively constrained by burrow architecture. Aboveground networks reflected affiliative social interactions whereas belowground networks reflected burrow associations. Network structure in one context (belowground), along with preferential juvenile-adult associations, predicted structure in a second context (aboveground). Network positions of individuals were generally consistent across years (within contexts) and between ecological contexts (within years), suggesting that individual personalities and behavioural syndromes, respectively, contribute to the social network structure of these free-living mammals. Direct ties (strength) tended to be stronger in belowground networks whereas more indirect paths (betweenness centrality) flowed through individuals in aboveground networks. Belowground, females fostered significantly more indirect paths than did males. Our findings have important potential implications for disease and information transmission, offering new insights into the multiple factors contributing to social structures across ecological contexts.This article is part of the theme issue 'Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour'.
许多动物在两种或更多主要生态环境中进行社交活动。在自然界中，这些环境通常涉及一种空间更受限制的情况（例如共享避难所、睡觉的悬崖、巢穴、洞穴或洞穴）和另一种动物活动相对自由的情况（例如在没有建筑限制的开阔空间中）。尽管人们普遍认识到个体的特征可能会影响其社交生活，但建筑在多大程度上限制了栖息地内和之间的社会决策仍知之甚少。在这里，我们开发了一种新颖的自动监测系统，以研究个性、生活史阶段和性别的个体特征对加利福尼亚地松鼠（）在两种不同环境下的社交网络结构的影响：在相对开阔的地面上，以及在受洞穴结构相对限制的地下。地面上的网络反映了亲和的社交互动，而地下网络则反映了洞穴的联系。一个环境（地下）的网络结构，以及优先的幼体-成体关联，预测了第二个环境（地上）的结构。个体的网络位置在几年内（在同一环境中）和两个生态环境之间（在同一年）通常是一致的，这表明个体的个性和行为综合征分别有助于这些自由生活的哺乳动物的社交网络结构。直接联系（强度）在地下网络中往往更强，而更多的间接路径（中介中心性）则通过地上网络中的个体流动。在地下，雌性比雄性产生的间接路径多得多。我们的研究结果对疾病和信息传播具有重要的潜在意义，为揭示建筑对跨生态环境的集体行为的影响的多种因素提供了新的见解。本文是主题为“揭示建筑对集体行为的影响的跨学科方法”的特刊的一部分。
