Ch-37- Behavioral Adaptations to the Environment

1. 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

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

3. 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

4. Innate behavior • Sign stimulus- stimulus that triggers FAP • Ex: open baby bird’s mouth

5. 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

6. 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

7. Types of learning • 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

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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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)

12. Biological rhythms • 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

24. 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

27. 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

29. 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

30. Habitat fragmentation • Major factor in species loss • Reduces population size by separation

31. Habitat fragmentation • In order to conserve habitats- habitat factors must be identified- what organisms need in order to survive • Increase fragmentation threatens populations

32. 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

33. 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

34. Sustainable development • Ultimate goal!!! • Long term prosperity of human society and the ecosystems that support them