Publications by authors named "Stephen John White"
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the variation in latent personality traits, specifically boldness, among seven species of small freshwater fish using an open field trial to assess four behaviors.
- It reveals differences in behavioral variance structures, indicating that while some species align with expected shy-bold traits, others do not, complicating direct comparisons across species.
- The research emphasizes the need for standardized methods and multivariate data analysis to better understand personality traits in animals and suggests the importance of phylogenetics in examining the evolution of these traits.
Sexual dimorphism in behaviour and personality has been identified in a number of species, but few studies have assessed the extent of shared genetic architecture across the sexes. Under sexually antagonistic selection, mechanisms are expected to evolve that reduce evolutionary conflict, resulting in genotype-by-sex (GxS) interactions. Here we assess the extent of sexual dimorphism in four risk-taking behaviour traits in the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata, and apply a multivariate approach to test for GxS interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong-individual variation in behaviour is a widespread phenomenon, with several frameworks developed to explain its existence. Maternal effects, which can have significant influence over evolutionary processes, are an understudied source of behavioural variation. Maternal effects are not necessarily static, however, since their importance can change over offspring ontogeny, typically declining with age relative to additive genetic effects.
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