Search results for "evolution"

Influence of aquatic microbiota on the survival in water of the human and eel pathogen Vibrio vulnificus serovar E

2004

Summary The eel and human pathogen Vibrio vulnificus serovar E (biotype 2) is seldom isolated from natural waters, although it can survive in sterilized artificial seawater microcosms for years. The main objective of the present study was to investigate whether aquatic microbiota can limit its survival and recovery from water samples. A set of preliminary experiments of survival in microcosms containing natural seawater and water from eel farms showed that the persistence of this pathogen was mainly controlled by grazing, and secondarily by bacterial competition. The bacte- rial competition was further analysed in artificial seawater microcosms co-inoculated with selected virulent serovar E…

Chemical Ecology of Egg Parasitoids Associated with True Bugs

2012

Parasitoids representing some 15 families of Hymenoptera develop in insect eggs; three of these families, Platygastridae (= Scelionidae), Mymaridae, and Encyrtidae, are associated with Heteroptera. Several species of heteropteran egg parasitoids are or may be important for biological pest control. Successful parasitism of insect herbivores by insect parasitoids arises through several phases of host searching, which lead female wasps to the vicinity of, or in contact with, their hosts. During the host location process, females encounter and explore a variety of stimuli, among which chemical cues (i.e., semiochemicals or infochemicals) play a pivotal role. Female parasitoids are under selecti…

Personality predicts social dominance in female zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, in a feeding context.

2011

6 pages; International audience; Although personality has been defined as a suite of correlated behaviours, most studies of animal personality actually consider correlations between a few traits. We examined the repeatability and correlational structure of five potential personality traits (activity, neophobia, exploratory tendencies, risk-taking behaviour and obstinacy), in female zebra finches. In addition, we assessed to what extent personality influenced social dominance in a feeding context in this gregarious species. All personality traits were found to be highly repeatable within individuals. In addition, except for obstinacy, all of them were related to each other, thus defining a b…

Polyterritoriality and deception

2011

Sex-specific selection on energy metabolism - selection coefficients for winter survival

2010

Selection for different fitness optima between sexes is supposed to operate on several traits. As fitness-related traits are often energetically costly, selection should also act directly on the energetics of individuals. However, efforts to examine the relationship between fitness and components of the energy budget are surprisingly scarce. We investigated the effects of basal metabolic rate (BMR, the minimum energy required for basic life functions) and body condition on long-term survival (8 winter months) with manipulated densities in enclosed populations of bank voles (Myodes glareolus). Here, we show that survival selection on BMR was clearly sex-specific but density-independent. Both…

Preprinting is positively associated with early career researcher status in ecology and evolution.

2021

Abstract The usage of preprint servers in ecology and evolution is increasing, allowing research to be rapidly disseminated and available through open access at no cost. Early Career Researchers (ECRs) often have limited experience with the peer review process, which can be challenging when trying to build publication records and demonstrate research ability for funding opportunities, scholarships, grants, or faculty positions. ECRs face different challenges relative to researchers with permanent positions and established research programs. These challenges might also vary according to institution size and country, which are factors associated with the availability of funding for open acces…

Individual differences in behavioral consistency are related to sequential access to resources and body condition in a producer-scrounger game

2014

Investigating the evolution of consistent between-individual behavioral differences necessitates to explain the emergence of within-individual consistency. Relying on a recent mathematical model, we here test the prediction that the emergence of differences in within-individual consistency is related to the sequential access to resources in a frequency-dependent foraging game. To this end we used flocks of zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) engaged in a producer-scrounger foraging game. Tactic investment (i.e., the proportion of hops with the head down) significantly predicted successful tactic use (i.e., the proportion of seeds produced). In support of predictions, we found that individua…

Personality predictors of social status attainment

2019

The current review summarizes recent advances in research on personality predictors of status attainment. In line with previous research, recent studies indicate that extraverted and narcissistic individuals tend to attain status in groups. Research on mediating processes includes a wide range of underlying motivational, behavioral, and interpersonal perception processes. Most generally speaking, those high in extraversion and narcissism attain status because they are more motivated to do so and thus display assertive behavior that makes them look competent. Situational contexts, group tasks, and cultural contexts can moderate the personality-status links by shaping these processes. For exa…

Gene expression patterns associated with caste and reproductive status in ants: worker-specific genes are more derived than queen-specific ones.

2013

Variation in gene expression leads to phenotypic diversity and plays a central role in caste differentiation of eusocial insect species. In social Hymenoptera, females with the same genetic background can develop into queens or workers, which are characterized by divergent morphologies, behaviours and lifespan. Moreover, many social insects exhibit behaviourally distinct worker castes, such as brood-tenders and foragers. Researchers have just started to explore which genes are differentially expressed to achieve this remarkable phenotypic plasticity. Although the queen is normally the only reproductive individual in the nest, following her removal, young brood-tending workers often develop …

Lyman break and ultraviolet-selected galaxies at z ̃ 1-I. Stellar populations from the ALHAMBRA survey

2013

We take advantage of the exceptional photometric coverage provided by the combination of GALEX data in the ultraviolet (UV) and the ALHAMBRA survey in the optical and near-infrared to analyse the physical properties of a sample of 1225 GALEX-selected Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at 0.8 ≲ z ≲ 1.2 that are located in the COSMOS field. This is the largest sample of LBGs studied in this redshift range to date. According to a spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting with synthetic stellar population templates, we find that LBGs at z ̃ 1 are mostly young galaxies with a median age of 341 Myr and have intermediate dust attenuation, (Es(B - V)) ̃ 0.20. Owing to the selection criterion, LBGs at z ̃…