Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-3-2017
Publication Title
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Keywords
Collective behaviour, Sociality, Metabolic rate, Aerobic scope, Ecophysiology, Foraging
ISSN
0962-8436
Volume
372
First Page
20160233
Abstract
Individuals of gregarious species often group with conspecifics to which they are phenotypically similar. This among-group assortment has been studied for body size, sex and relatedness. However, the role of physiological traits has been largely overlooked. Here, we discuss mechanisms by which physiological traits—particularly those related to metabolism and locomotor performance—may result in phenotypic assortment not only among but also within animal groups. At the among-group level, varying combinations of passive assortment, active assortment, phenotypic plasticity and selective mortality may generate phenotypic differences among groups. Even within groups, however, individual variation in energy requirements, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, neurological lateralization and tolerance to environmental stressors are likely to produce differences in the spatial location of individuals or associations between group-mates with specific physiological phenotypes. Owing to the greater availability of empirical research, we focus on groups of fishes (i.e. shoals and schools). Increased knowledge of physiological mechanisms influencing among- and within-group assortment will enhance our understanding of fundamental concepts regarding optimal group size, predator avoidance, group cohesion, information transfer, life-history strategies and the evolutionary effects of group membership. In a broader perspective, predicting animal responses to environmental change will be impossible without a comprehensive understanding of the physiological basis of the formation and functioning of animal social groups.
Additional Comments
Natural Environment Research Council Advanced Fellowship #: NE/J019100/1 ; European Research Council grant #: 640004
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
NSUWorks Citation
Shaun S. Killen, Stefano Marras, Lauren E. Nadler, and Paolo Domenici. 2017. The Role of Physiological Traits in Assortment Among and Within Fish Shoals .Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences : 20160233 . https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/1108.
ORCID ID
0000-0001-8225-8344
DOI
10.1098/rstb.2016.0233
Comments
©2017 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.