Dehnen Tobit, Arbon Josh J, Farine Damien R, Boogert Neeltje J
Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Treliever Road, Penryn, TR10 9FE, U.K.
Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Universitätsstraße 10, Konstanz, 78464, Germany.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2022 Jun;97(3):1210-1230. doi: 10.1111/brv.12838. Epub 2022 Feb 12.
In many animal societies, individuals differ consistently in their ability to win agonistic interactions, resulting in dominance hierarchies. These differences arise due to a range of factors that can influence individuals' abilities to win agonistic interactions, spanning from genetically driven traits through to individuals' recent interaction history. Yet, despite a century of study since Schjelderup-Ebbe's seminal paper on social dominance, we still lack a general understanding of how these different factors work together to determine individuals' positions in hierarchies. Here, we first outline five widely studied factors that can influence interaction outcomes: intrinsic attributes, resource value asymmetry, winner-loser effects, dyadic interaction-outcome history and third-party support. A review of the evidence shows that a variety of factors are likely important to interaction outcomes, and thereby individuals' positions in dominance hierarchies, in diverse species. We propose that such factors are unlikely to determine dominance outcomes independently, but rather form part of feedback loops whereby the outcomes of previous agonistic interactions (e.g. access to food) impact factors that might be important in subsequent interactions (e.g. body condition). We provide a conceptual framework that illustrates the multitude potential routes through which such feedbacks can occur, and how the factors that determine the outcomes of dominance interactions are highly intertwined and thus rarely act independently of one another. Further, we generalise our framework to include multi-generational feed-forward mechanisms: how interaction outcomes in one generation can influence the factors determining interaction outcomes in the next generation via a range of parental effects. This general framework describes how interaction outcomes and the factors determining them are linked within generations via feedback loops, and between generations via feed-forward mechanisms. We then highlight methodological approaches that will facilitate the study of feedback loops and dominance dynamics. Lastly, we discuss how our framework could shape future research, including: how feedbacks generate variation in the factors discussed, and how this might be studied experimentally; how the relative importance of different feedback mechanisms varies across timescales; the role of social structure in modulating the effect of feedbacks on hierarchy structure and stability; and the routes of parental influence on the dominance status of offspring. Ultimately, by considering dominance interactions as part of a dynamic feedback system that also feeds forward into subsequent generations, we will understand better the factors that structure dominance hierarchies in animal groups.
在许多动物群体中，个体在赢得争斗性互动的能力上存在持续差异，从而形成了优势等级制度。这些差异源于一系列能够影响个体赢得争斗性互动能力的因素，范围从基因驱动的特征到个体最近的互动历史。然而，自舍尔德鲁普 - 埃贝关于社会优势的开创性论文发表以来，尽管已经研究了一个世纪，但我们仍然缺乏对这些不同因素如何共同作用来决定个体在等级制度中的地位的全面理解。在此，我们首先概述五个被广泛研究的能够影响互动结果的因素：内在属性、资源价值不对称、胜者 - 败者效应、二元互动结果历史以及第三方支持。对证据的回顾表明，多种因素可能对不同物种的互动结果以及个体在优势等级制度中的地位很重要。我们提出，这些因素不太可能独立决定优势结果，而是构成反馈回路的一部分，即先前争斗性互动的结果（例如获取食物）会影响后续互动中可能重要的因素（例如身体状况）。我们提供了一个概念框架，说明了这种反馈可能发生的众多潜在途径，以及决定优势互动结果的因素是如何高度交织在一起，因此很少相互独立起作用的。此外，我们将框架进行推广，纳入多代前馈机制：一代中的互动结果如何通过一系列亲代效应影响决定下一代互动结果的因素。这个通用框架描述了互动结果与决定它们的因素如何在代内通过反馈回路联系起来，以及在代与代之间通过前馈机制联系起来。然后，我们强调有助于研究反馈回路和优势动态的方法学途径。最后，我们讨论我们的框架如何塑造未来的研究，包括：反馈如何在讨论的因素中产生变异，以及如何通过实验进行研究；不同反馈机制的相对重要性如何在不同时间尺度上变化；社会结构在调节反馈对等级制度结构和稳定性的影响方面的作用；以及亲代对后代优势地位影响的途径。最终，通过将优势互动视为一个动态反馈系统的一部分，并且这个系统还会向前影响后代，我们将更好地理解构建动物群体中优势等级制度的因素。
