Institut für Biochemie und Biologie
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Welcome to the dark side
(2022)
Differences in natural light conditions caused by changes in moonlight are known to affect perceived predation risk in many nocturnal prey species. As artificial light at night (ALAN) is steadily increasing in space and intensity, it has the potential to change movement and foraging behavior of many species as it might increase perceived predation risk and mask natural light cycles. We investigated if partial nighttime illumination leads to changes in foraging behavior during the night and the subsequent day in a small mammal and whether these changes are related to animal personalities. We subjected bank voles to partial nighttime illumination in a foraging landscape under laboratory conditions and in large grassland enclosures under near natural conditions. We measured giving-up density of food in illuminated and dark artificial seed patches and video recorded the movement of animals. While animals reduced number of visits to illuminated seed patches at night, they increased visits to these patches at the following day compared to dark seed patches. Overall, bold individuals had lower giving-up densities than shy individuals but this difference increased at day in formerly illuminated seed patches. Small mammals thus showed carry-over effects on daytime foraging behavior due to ALAN, i.e., nocturnal illumination has the potential to affect intra- and interspecific interactions during both night and day with possible changes in personality structure within populations and altered predator-prey dynamics.
Welcome to the Dark Side
(2022)
Differences in natural light conditions caused by changes in moonlight are known to affect perceived predation risk in many nocturnal prey species. As artificial light at night (ALAN) is steadily increasing in space and intensity, it has the potential to change movement and foraging behavior of many species as it might increase perceived predation risk and mask natural light cycles. We investigated if partial nighttime illumination leads to changes in foraging behavior during the night and the subsequent day in a small mammal and whether these changes are related to animal personalities. We subjected bank voles to partial nighttime illumination in a foraging landscape under laboratory conditions and in large grassland enclosures under near natural conditions. We measured giving-up density of food in illuminated and dark artificial seed patches and video recorded the movement of animals. While animals reduced number of visits to illuminated seed patches at night, they increased visits to these patches at the following day compared to dark seed patches. Overall, bold individuals had lower giving-up densities than shy individuals but this difference increased at day in formerly illuminated seed patches. Small mammals thus showed carry-over effects on daytime foraging behavior due to ALAN, i.e., nocturnal illumination has the potential to affect intra- and interspecific interactions during both night and day with possible changes in personality structure within populations and altered predator-prey dynamics.
Welcome to the Dark Side
(2022)
Differences in natural light conditions caused by changes in moonlight are known to affect perceived predation risk in many nocturnal prey species. As artificial light at night (ALAN) is steadily increasing in space and intensity, it has the potential to change movement and foraging behavior of many species as it might increase perceived predation risk and mask natural light cycles. We investigated if partial nighttime illumination leads to changes in foraging behavior during the night and the subsequent day in a small mammal and whether these changes are related to animal personalities. We subjected bank voles to partial nighttime illumination in a foraging landscape under laboratory conditions and in large grassland enclosures under near natural conditions. We measured giving-up density of food in illuminated and dark artificial seed patches and video recorded the movement of animals. While animals reduced number of visits to illuminated seed patches at night, they increased visits to these patches at the following day compared to dark seed patches. Overall, bold individuals had lower giving-up densities than shy individuals but this difference increased at day in formerly illuminated seed patches. Small mammals thus showed carry-over effects on daytime foraging behavior due to ALAN, i.e., nocturnal illumination has the potential to affect intra- and interspecific interactions during both night and day with possible changes in personality structure within populations and altered predator-prey dynamics.
Animal personalities are by definition stable over time, but to what extent they may change during development and in adulthood to adjust to environmental change is unclear. Animals of temperate environments have evolved physiological and behavioural adaptations to cope with the cyclic seasonal changes. This may also result in changes in personality: suites of behavioural and physiological traits that vary consistently among individuals. Winter, typically the adverse season challenging survival, may require individuals to have shy/cautious personality, whereas during summer, energetically favourable to reproduction, individuals may benefit from a bold/risk-taking personality. To test the effects of seasonal changes in early life and in adulthood on behaviours (activity, exploration and anxiety), body mass and stress response, we manipulated the photoperiod and quality of food in two experiments to simulate the conditions of winter and summer. We used the common voles (Microtus arvalis) as they have been shown to display personality based on behavioural consistency over time and contexts. Summer-born voles allocated to winter conditions at weaning had lower body mass, a higher corticosterone increase after stress and a less active, more cautious behavioural phenotype in adulthood compared to voles born in and allocated to summer conditions. In contrast, adult females only showed plasticity in stress-induced corticosterone levels, which were higher in the animals that were transferred to the winter conditions than to those staying in summer conditions. These results suggest a sensitive period for season-related behavioural plasticity in which juveniles shift over the bold-shy axis.
The fast and the flexible
(2018)
A fundamental focus of current ecological and evolutionary research is to illuminate the drivers of animals' success in coping with human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). Behavioural adaptations are likely to play a major role in coping with HIREC because behaviour largely determines how individuals interact with their surroundings. A substantial body of research reports behavioural modifications in urban dwellers compared to rural conspecifics. However, it is often unknown whether the observed phenotypic divergence is due to phenotypic plasticity or the product of genetic adaptations. Here, we aimed at investigating (a) whether behavioural differences arise also between rural and urban populations of non-commensal rodents; and (b) whether these differences result from behavioural flexibility or from intrinsic behavioural characteristics, such as genetic or maternal effects. We captured and kept under common environment conditions 42 rural and 52 urban adult common voles (Microtus arvalis) from seven subpopulations along a rural-urban gradient. We investigated individual variation in behavioural responses associated with risk-taking and exploration, in situ at the time of capture in the field and ex situ after 3 months in captivity. Urban dwellers were bolder and more explorative than rural conspecifics at the time of capture in their respective sites (in situ). However, when tested under common environmental conditions ex situ, rural individuals showed little change in their behavioural responses whereas urban individuals altered their behaviour considerably and were consistently shyer and less explorative than when tested in situ. The combination of elevated risk-taking and exploration with high behavioural flexibility might allow urban populations to successfully cope with the challenges of HIREC. Investigating whether the observed differences in behavioural flexibility are adaptive and how they are shaped by additive and interactive effects of genetic make-up and past environmental conditions will help illuminate eco-evolutionary dynamics under HIREC and predict persistence of populations under urban conditions.
A number of short-lived, iteroparous animal species have small broods in the early breeding season and larger broods in later breeding season. Brood size affects not only offspring size, but as recent results suggest, may also affect offspring's temperament, hormonal status, and aggression as adults. Most populations of short-lived, iteroparous mammals fluctuate predictably over the season, with low densities in winter, increasing densities in summer and a population peak in late summer followed by a population breakdown. If animals live only through parts of the season, possibly such differences in density and hence also in social environments among seasons require different personality types to increase individual fitness. We present data on behavior of European rabbits from a field enclosure study. These data clearly show that aggressiveness is higher in young from smaller litters than in young from larger litters, and smaller litters are usually born during the early breeding season. Moreover, our data suggest that behavioral types of the young rabbits are stable over time, at least during their subadult life. We suggest, that changes in mean litter size over the course of the breeding season may not only be a product of mothers' age or food availability, but may also have an adaptive function by preparing offspring characteristics for adulthood in a social environment undergoing predictable density changes within the season.
Of city and village mice
(2020)
A fundamental question of current ecological research concerns the drives and limits of species responses to human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). Behavioural responses to HIREC are a key component because behaviour links individual responses to population and community changes. Ongoing fast urbanization provides an ideal setting to test the functional role of behaviour for responses to HIREC. Consistent behavioural differences between conspecifics (animal personality) may be important determinants or constraints of animals’ adaptation to urban habitats. We tested whether urban and rural populations of small mammals differ in mean trait expression, flexibility and repeatability of behaviours associated to risk-taking and exploratory tendencies. Using a standardized behavioural test in the field, we quantified spatial exploration and boldness of striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius, n = 96) from nine sub-populations, presenting different levels of urbanisation and anthropogenic disturbance. The level of urbanisation positively correlated with boldness, spatial exploration and behavioural flexibility, with urban dwellers being bolder, more explorative and more flexible in some traits than rural conspecifics. Thus, individuals seem to distribute in a non-random way in response to human disturbance based on their behavioural characteristics. Animal personality might therefore play a key role in successful coping with the challenges of HIREC.
Of city and village mice
(2020)
A fundamental question of current ecological research concerns the drives and limits of species responses to human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). Behavioural responses to HIREC are a key component because behaviour links individual responses to population and community changes. Ongoing fast urbanization provides an ideal setting to test the functional role of behaviour for responses to HIREC. Consistent behavioural differences between conspecifics (animal personality) may be important determinants or constraints of animals’ adaptation to urban habitats. We tested whether urban and rural populations of small mammals differ in mean trait expression, flexibility and repeatability of behaviours associated to risk-taking and exploratory tendencies. Using a standardized behavioural test in the field, we quantified spatial exploration and boldness of striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius, n = 96) from nine sub-populations, presenting different levels of urbanisation and anthropogenic disturbance. The level of urbanisation positively correlated with boldness, spatial exploration and behavioural flexibility, with urban dwellers being bolder, more explorative and more flexible in some traits than rural conspecifics. Thus, individuals seem to distribute in a non-random way in response to human disturbance based on their behavioural characteristics. Animal personality might therefore play a key role in successful coping with the challenges of HIREC.
My niche
(2020)
Intraspecific trait variation is an important determinant of fundamental ecological interactions. Many of these interactions are mediated by behaviour. Therefore, interindividual differences in behaviour should contribute to individual niche specialization. Comparable with variation in morphological traits, behavioural differentiation between individuals should limit similarity among competitors and thus act as a mechanism maintaining within-species variation in ecological niches and facilitating species coexistence. Here, we aimed to test whether interindividual differences in boldness covary with spatial interactions within and between two ecologically similar, co-occurring rodent species (Myodes glareolus, Apodemus agrarius). In five subpopulations in northeast Germany, we quantified individual differences in boldness via repeated standardized tests and spatial interaction patterns via capture-mark- recapture (n = 126) and automated VHF telemetry (n = 36). We found that boldness varied with space use in both species. Individuals of the same population occupied different spatial niches, which resulted in non-random patterns of within- and between-species spatial interactions. Behavioural types mainly differed in the relative importance of intra- versus interspecific competition. Within-species variation along this competition gradient could contribute to maintaining individual niche specialization. Moreover, behavioural differentiation between individuals limits similarity among competitors, which might facilitate the coexistence of functionally equivalent species and, thus, affect community dynamics and local biodiversity.