Does the match between individual and group behavior matter in shoaling sticklebacks?

Kim, S.‐Y., Álvarez‐Quintero, N. and Metcalfe, N. B. (2022) Does the match between individual and group behavior matter in shoaling sticklebacks? Ecology and Evolution, 12(2), e8581. (doi: 10.1002/ece3.8581) (PMID:35222959) (PMCID:PMC8844133)

Abstract

In animals living in groups, the social environment is fundamental to shaping the behaviors and life histories of an individual. A mismatch between individual and group behavior patterns may have disadvantages if the individual is incapable of flexibly changing its state in response to the social environment that influences its energy gain and expenditure. We used different social groups of juvenile three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) with experimentally manipulated compositions of individual sociability to study the feedback between individual and group behaviors and to test how the social environment shapes behavior, metabolic rate, and growth. Experimentally created unsociable groups, containing a high proportion of less sociable fish, showed bolder collective behaviors during feeding than did corresponding sociable groups. Fish within groups where the majority of members had a level of sociability similar to their own gained more mass than did those within mismatched groups. Less sociable individuals within sociable groups tended to have a relatively low mass but a high standard metabolic rate. A mismatch between the sociability of an individual and that of the majority of the group in which it is living confers a growth disadvantage probably due to the expression of nonadaptive behaviors that increase energetic costs.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by research grants provided by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (PGC2018-095412-B-I00) and the Xunta de Galicia (ED431F 2017/07). S.-Y.K. and N.Á.-Q. were funded by Ramon y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2015-18317) and FPI student grant (BES-2016-078894) from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades; N.B.M. was funded by an ERC Advanced Grant (834653).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Metcalfe, Professor Neil

Creator Roles

Metcalfe, N. B.: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Writing – original draft

• Authors: Kim, S.‐Y., Álvarez‐Quintero, N., and Metcalfe, N. B.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
• Journal Name: Ecology and Evolution
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 2045-7758
• ISSN (Online): 2045-7758
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Ecology and Evolution 12(2):e8581
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
305090		MITOWILD	Neil Metcalfe	European Commission (EC)	834653	Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine