Golab Maria J, Brodin Tomas, Sniegula Szymon
Institute of Nature Conservation Polish Academy of Sciences Kraków Poland.
Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) Umeå Sweden.
Ecol Evol. 2020 Aug 27;10(18):10242-10253. doi: 10.1002/ece3.6686. eCollection 2020 Sep.
Understanding why and how behavioral profiles differ across latitudes can help predict behavioral responses to environmental change. The first response to environmental change that an organism exhibits is commonly a behavioral response. Change in one behavior usually results in shifts in other correlated behaviors, which may adaptively or maladaptively vary across environments and/or time. However, one important aspect that is often neglected when studying behavioral expressions among populations is if/how the experimental design might affect the results. This is unfortunate since animals often plastically modify their behavior to the environment, for example, rearing conditions. We studied behavioral traits and trait correlations in larvae of a univoltine damselfly, , along its latitudinal distribution, spreading over 3,300 km. We compared behavioral profiles among larvae grown in two conditions: (a) native temperatures and photoperiods or (b) averaged constant temperatures and photoperiods (common-garden). We hypothesized latitudinal differences in behavioral traits regardless of the conditions in which larvae were grown, with northern populations expressing higher activity, boldness, and foraging efficiency. When grown in native conditions, northern larvae were bolder, more active and more effective in prey capture than central and low latitude populations, respectively, as well as showed the strongest behavioral correlations. In contrast, larvae reared in common-garden conditions showed no differences between regions in both individual traits and trait correlations. The results suggest different selective pressures acting on the studied traits across populations, with environment as a central determinant of the observed trait values. Common-garden designed experiments may evoke population-dependent levels of plastic response to the artificial conditions and, hence, generate results that lack ecological relevance when studying multi-population differences in behavior.
理解行为特征为何以及如何随纬度变化，有助于预测对环境变化的行为反应。生物体对环境变化的首要反应通常是行为反应。一种行为的改变通常会导致其他相关行为的变化，这些变化在不同环境和/或时间可能是适应性的，也可能是适应不良的。然而，在研究种群间行为表现时，一个经常被忽视的重要方面是实验设计是否/如何可能影响结果。这很不幸，因为动物常常会根据环境，例如饲养条件，灵活地改变它们的行为。我们研究了一种一年一代的豆娘幼虫沿其纬度分布（跨越3300公里）的行为特征和特征相关性。我们比较了在两种条件下生长的幼虫的行为特征：（a）自然温度和光周期，或（b）平均恒定温度和光周期（共同花园）。我们假设，无论幼虫生长的条件如何，行为特征都存在纬度差异，北方种群表现出更高的活动水平、胆量和觅食效率。在自然条件下生长时，北方幼虫比中部和低纬度种群分别更大胆、更活跃，捕食效率更高，并且表现出最强的行为相关性。相比之下，在共同花园条件下饲养的幼虫在个体特征和特征相关性方面在不同区域之间没有差异。结果表明，不同的选择压力作用于不同种群的研究特征，环境是观察到的特征值的核心决定因素。共同花园设计的实验可能会引发种群依赖的对人工条件的可塑性反应水平，因此，在研究行为的多种群差异时会产生缺乏生态相关性的结果。
