Biology subjects

Forsman, J. T.

Publications and source records attributed to Forsman, J. T..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Ecological and evolutionary consequences of selective interspecific information use

II.AbstactThe ecology of social information use has been studied in many intra- and interspecific contexts, while the evolutionary consequences of social information use remain less understood. Furthermore, selective social information use, where individuals are discriminative in their decision-making on how to use social information, has been overlooked in interspecific context. In particular, the intentional decision to reject a behavioural trait observed via social information, has gained less attention, although it has recently been shown to occur in various taxa. We develop an individual-based simulation model to explore in which circumstances social information use leads to different coevolutionary outcomes among populations of two species. The initial phenotypes and the balance between costs of competition and benefits of social information use determine whether selection leads to trait divergence, convergence or coevolutionary arms race between two species. Based on existing literature, we propose that selective decisions of individuals, including active rejection, may have far-reaching fitness consequences, potentially leading to similar evolutionary consequences among the populations of the information source and the user as predicted by our model. Overall, we argue that the eco-evolutionary consequences of selective interspecific social information use may be much more prevalent than thus far considered.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Linking biotic homogenisation with large-scale changes of species associations

AimThe impact of global change on biodiversity is commonly assessed in terms of changes in species distributions, community richness and community composition. Whether and how much associations between species, i.e. the degree of correlation in their spatial co-occurrence, are also changing is much less documented and mostly limited to local studies of ecological networks. In this study, we quantify changes in large-scale patterns of species associations in bird communities in relation to changes in species composition. LocationFrance. Time period2001-2017. Major taxa studiedCommon breeding birds. MethodsWe use network approaches to build three community-aggregated indices reflecting complementary aspects of species association networks. We characterise the spatio-temporal dynamics of these indices using a large-scale and high-resolution dataset of bird co-abundances of 109 species monitored for 17 years (2001-2017) from 1,969 sites across France. We finally test whether spatial and temporal changes in species association networks are related to species homogenisation estimated as the spatio-temporal dynamics of {beta}-diversity and the proportion of habitat generalists. The consistency of these relationships is tested across three main habitats, namely woodland, grassland and human settlements. ResultsWe document a directional change in association-based indices in response to modifications in {beta}-diversity and in the proportion of generalists in space and time. Weaker associations and sparser networks were related to lower {beta}-diversity and a higher proportion of generalists, suggesting an overlooked aspect of biotic homogenisation affecting species associations. We report that this overall pattern is not constant across habitats, with opposite relationships between biotic homogenisation and change in species association networks in urban versus forest communities suggesting distinct homogenisation processes. Main ConclusionsAlthough species association contain only partial signatures of species interactions, our study highlights that biotic homogenisation translates to finer changes in community structure by affecting the number, strength and type of species associations.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Heterospecific song quality as social information for settlement decisions: an experimental approach in a wild bird

Assessing local habitat quality via social cues provided by con- or heterospecific individuals sharing the same needs is a widespread strategy of social information use for breeding habitat selection. However, gathering information about putative competitors may involve agonistic costs. The use of social cues reflecting local habitat quality acquired from a distance, such as acoustic cues, could therefore be favoured. Bird songs are conspicuous signals commonly assumed to reliably reflect producer quality, and thereby local site quality. Birds of different species have been shown to be attracted to breeding sites by heterospecific songs, but whether they can use fine heterospecific song features as information on producer (and by extension habitat) quality remains unknown. We used a playback experiment in a wild population of collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis), a species known to eavesdrop on dominant great tits (Parus major) presence and performance, to test whether flycatchers preferred to settle near broadcasts of a high quality great tit song (i.e. song with large repertoire size, long strophes, high song rate), a low quality great tit song or a chaffinch song (control). Among old females, aggressive ones preferred to settle near broadcasts of high quality tit song and avoided broadcasts of low quality tit song, while less aggressive females preferred to settle near broadcasts of low quality tit song. Male personality or age did not influence settlement decisions. Our results show that collared flycatcher females use great tit song quality features as information for settlement decisions, though differently depending on their own competitive ability and/or previous experience with great tit songs. Our study therefore further illustrates the complex condition-dependent use of heterospecific social information for breeding habitat selection.

ecology↗