Ch-37- Behavioral Adaptations to the Environment

• Animal behavior- what an animal does when interacting with its natural environment– Reflects evolution (natural selection as well)– Behavior results from genes and environmental experiences

(learning)– Proximate cause- behavior in terms of immediate interaction with

env– Ultimate cause- evolutionary cause of behavior

Proximate- arrangement of landmarks and ultimate-natural selection enhanced by finding nest location Genetic and environmental components to behavior

Innate behavior

• One that is performed in virtually the same way by all individuals of a species– FAP- fixed action pattern-

unchangeable behavioral sequence

Graylag goose

Innate behavior

– Sign stimulus- stimulus that triggers FAP• Ex: open baby bird’s mouth

Types of learning

• Learning- change in behavior resulting from experience• Habituation- learns not to respond to repeated stimulus

that conveys little to no information– Highly adaptive– Ex: hydra- touched and responds, continuously touched- stops

responding

Types of learning• Imprinting- learning that is limited to a specific time

period in an animal’s life and is generally irreversible– Results in strong bond between organisms– Specific period referred to as sensitive period

• Associative learning- animals learns that a particular stimulus or response is linked to a reward/punishment– In nature- this is usually done by trial and error- predator quickly

learns certain prey does not taste good

Types of learning

Types of learning

• Imitation- learning by observing or mimicking the behaviors of others– Ex: learning how to hunt

Problems solving

• Some animals have the ability to problem solve

• Cognition- the ability of an organism’s nervous system to perceive, store, process and use info gathered by sensory receptors

• Difficult to test consciousness– Can’t be anthropomorphic- ascribing human

motivations or feelings to animal behaviors

Biological rhythms

• Circadian rhythms- patterns repeated daily – Light and dark can affect activity in animals

Squirrel wheel activity 12 hrs of day and 12 hrs of night

Squirrel wheel activity 24 hrs of night

Biological rhythms

• Kinesis- random movement in response to a stimulus– Animal may start, stop or change directions

• Sow bug moves faster in dry conditions in hopes to find moist area

• Taxis- automatic movement towards or away from a stimulus– Rheotaxis- trout orient upstream– Chemotaxis- how animals locate mates (chem signals)

• Landmarks- more complex than taxis and kinesis- use to find their way– Ex: digger wasp and circle of pinecones

• Movement can also depend on internal maps– Cognitive map- internal representation, code, or the spatial

relationships among objects in it’s surroundings– Ex:migration- use stars, coastline, sun to navigate

Biological rhythms

Feeding behavior

• Generalists- org’s that eat a lot of different things• Specialists- eat specific things Ex: koala• Most organisms fall somewhere in between• Optional foraging- feeding behavior should provide max

E gain with minimun E expense and time spent• When there are choices there are trade-offs

Social behavior• Interaction between animals, usually the same species

– Aggression, courtship, cooperation– Agnostic behavior- threats and combat that settles disputes

• Over resources or mates• When one tires the other wins• Future encounters will result in less combat• Maintains dominance hierarchies- ranking individuals based on these social

interactions Ex: peck order, dominant wolf in pack

Social behavior

• Territorial behavior- territory- area, fixed in location, that an individual will defend and which other members of same species are excluded

• Mating behavior- involves elaborate courtship rituals, dances and songs

Social behavior

• Provides organization with a population– Depends on signaling (communication)

among the individuals in the population– Signal- behavior that communicates-

causing a change in behavior or another• Ex: growl, odor, visual display

– The more complex the social organization- the more complex the signal

• Ex: honey bee waggle dance

Altruism

• Behavior that reduces an individuals fitness while increasing the fitness of another– Evident in cooperative group colonies

• Ex: bee colonies, queen and sterile female workers

– Evolves even though fitness will decrease, because the fitness of a relative will increase (which is passing on your genes)

– Altruism towards nonrelatives- hope that it is repaid in the future

Ch 38- Conservation

• Conservation biology- goal oriented science that seeks to counter the biodiversity crisis– Biodiversity crisis- rapid decrease in Earth’s variety of life…

human activities alter ecosystems

• Biodiversity is vital to human welfare– Responsible for: food, clothing, shelter, oxygen, soil fertility,

medicines– Without species- biosphere changes (cycles shift) can affect our

population

Threats to biodiversity• 1- Habitat destruction-

– Due to: expansion of agriculture, urban development, forestry mining, env pollution, **all from increase human population

– Accounts for 73% of extinct, endangered, vulnerable and rare species

• 2- Introduced species- – Competes and usually wins against native species (has no

natural predators)– Imported by: plants, boats, on humans, animals– US has at least 50,000 introduced species– Ex: zebra mussel, kudzu

• 3- Overexploitation of wildlife-– Excessive overfishing, harvesting, sport hunting and poaching

How we impact with technology and population:

• Use MANY resources• Oil spills- pollute and kill• Acid precipitation- due to increase in pollutants that enter

atmosphere• Ozone layer- depletion- from CFC’s- more UV rays enter

atmosphere– **also thickening- due to increase in greenhouse gases- doesn’t let heat

escape

How we impact with technology and population:

• Biological magnification- accumulation of persistent chemicals in the living tissues of consumers in food chains– Chem pesticides from farm–

wash into water

– Ex: lobster die off in LI Sound after spraying for West Nile

Greenhouse effect

• Warming of the atmosphere cause by CO2, CH4 and other gases which absorb infrared radiation and slow its escape from Earth– There has been climate change in Earth’s history but industry

has exacerbated it– Consequences: an increase of less than 2 oC– Melt polar ice- raise sea level– Alter global rainfall- alter farming, cause desertification– Species loss due to habitat change– Evidence: extreme weather-– Reason the push to decrease your carbon footprint

Biodiversity hot spots

• Small areas with a large concentration of species which are threatened or endangered– Many are also endemic- found nowhere else, highly sensitive to

change• So unfortunately also extinction hotspots

– Make up less than 1.5% of Earth’s land but home to 1/3 of the known species of plants and vertebrates

Endangered species

• One that is “in danger of extinction throughout all of a significant portion of it’s range”

• Threatened species- those that are likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future

Habitat fragmentation• Major factor in species loss

• Reduces population size by separation

Habitat fragmentation

• In order to conserve habitats- habitat factors must be identified- what organisms need in order to survive

• Increase fragmentation threatens populations

• Conservation is now aiming to sustain entire ecosystems or landscapes not just a particular species– Landscape- regional assemblage of interacting ecosystems– Landscape ecology- goal- understand the patterns past, present

and future and make biological conservation a functional part of the picture

• Parks, preserves, national reserves

– Edges and corridors- influence landscape, due to specific physical conditions and organisms that live in those areas

Restoration ecology

• Uses ecological principles to develop ways to return degraded ecosystems to conditions similar to their pre-degraded state– 1-bioremediation- use of living org’s (prokaryotes, fungi and

plants) to detoxify polluted ecosystems– 2- augmentation of ecosystem processes- process of

determining what factors have been removed from an area and are limiting it’s recovery

• Ex: chemical nutrients

Sustainable development

• Ultimate goal!!!• Long term prosperity of human society and the

ecosystems that support them