Predators exert a powerful selective force, however, predator avoidance can conflict with other important activities such as attracting mates. Decisions over whether to court mates versus avoiding predators are vital to fitness, yet the mechanistic underpinnings of how animals manage such tradeoffs are poorly understood. Here, we investigate the flexibility of behaviour and gene regulation in response to a tradeoff between avoiding predators (survival) and courting potential mates (reproduction) in three-spined stickleback ().
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimals frequently make adaptive decisions about what to prioritize when faced with multiple, competing demands simultaneously. However, the proximate mechanisms of decision-making in the face of competing demands are not well understood. We explored this question using brain transcriptomics in a classic model system: threespined sticklebacks, where males face conflict between courtship and territorial defence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoral reefs are increasingly ecologically destabilized across the globe due to climate change. Behavioural plasticity in corallivore behaviour and short-term trophic ecology in response to bleaching events may influence the extent and severity of coral bleaching and subsequent recovery potential, yet our understanding of these interactions remains unclear. Here, we investigated interactions between corallivory and coral bleaching during a severe high thermal event (10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVertebrate growth can be phenotypically plastic in response to predator-prey and competitive interactions. It is unknown however, if it can be plastic in response to mutualistic interactions. Here we investigate plasticity of vertebrate growth in response to variation in mutualistic interactions, using clown anemonefish and their anemone hosts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndividuals that forgo their own reproduction in animal societies represent an evolutionary paradox because it is not immediately apparent how natural selection can preserve the genes that underlie non-breeding strategies. Cooperative breeding theory provides a solution to the paradox: non-breeders benefit by helping relatives and/or inheriting breeding positions; non-breeders do not disperse to breed elsewhere because of ecological constraints. However, the question of why non-breeders do not contest to breed within their group has rarely been addressed.
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