Article
Ecology
Eva Conquet, Arpat Ozgul, Daniel T. Blumstein, Kenneth B. Armitage, Madan K. Oli, Julien G. A. Martin, Tim H. Clutton-Brock, Maria Paniw
Summary: The effects of changes in the strength of vital-rate periodicity on different species were investigated in this study. It was found that these changes had strong effects on population dynamics across all three study species. This suggests that environmentally driven vital-rate periodic patterns may have significant impacts on population dynamics, even for populations that are adapted to inter-annual vital-rate variation.
Article
Zoology
K. Uchida, A. A. Burkle, D. T. Blumstein
Summary: Through studying yellow-bellied marmots, it was found that cameras can distract marmots but do not affect their risk assessment. However, capturing their attention may reduce their ability to be alert to predators, increasing their vulnerability to predation. Regulation of photography may be necessary in high-risk areas and habitats of vulnerable species.
JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Zoology
B. E. Barbee, M. K. R. Lin, I. A. Min, A. M. Takenami, C. S. Philson, D. T. Blumstein
Summary: This study examined the effects of nutrient enrichment on risk assessment in giant clams. The results showed that nutrient-enriched clams increased their hiding time when faced with simulated predators. This provides support for previous research on state-dependent risk assessment and suggests that nutrient-enriched clams are less likely to take risks to forage.
JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Conner S. Philson, Daniel T. Blumstein
Summary: The frequency and type of individual's social interactions have important fitness consequences. This study used social network analysis to quantify social group structure and found that female yellow-bellied marmots living in more fragmentable social groups weaned larger litters. This suggests that the individual's position within the group and its social phenotype may be more important for fitness than the group's social phenotype.
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Rebecca M. Prather, Rebecca M. Dalton, Billy Barr, Daniel T. Blumstein, Carol L. Boggs, Alison K. Brody, David W. Inouye, Rebecca E. Irwin, Julien G. A. Martin, Rosemary J. Smith, Dirk H. Van Vuren, Caitlin P. Wells, Howard H. Whiteman, Brian D. Inouye, Nora Underwood
Summary: Climate can influence the timing of life events. Studies from around the world show that climate cues and species' responses can vary. We collected data on phenological events for multiple species in a high-elevation environment over 45 years and found significant variation in how climate affects phenology across taxa. Comparing the phenological responses of different taxa at a single location, we found that important cues often differ among species, which suggests that climate change may disrupt the synchrony of timing among taxa.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Review
Ecology
Daniel T. Blumstein, Loren D. Hayes, Noa Pinter-Wollman
Summary: Social behavior is crucial in understanding the impact of human-induced environmental changes on animal population resilience. Social structures of animal groups, which often have demographic consequences for group members, can be directly influenced or indirectly modified by environmental drivers through social interactions, group composition, or group size. We have developed a framework to study these demographic consequences and estimating the strength of direct and indirect pathways will provide insights for understanding and potentially managing the effects of human-induced rapid environmental changes.
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Dana M. Williams, Samantha Beckert, Julien G. A. Martin, Daniel T. Blumstein
Summary: Individuals vary in their acceptance of predation risks and social relationships play a role in risk management. However, the specific ways in which different types of social relationships influence individual risk response are not well understood. This study focused on yellow-bellied marmots and found that docile individuals were less socially integrated and that certain measures of their positions in their agonistic social networks were associated with individual docility. These findings suggest that social network measures are part of a docility syndrome in yellow-bellied marmots.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Daniel T. Blumstein, McKenna Sanchez, Conner S. Philson, Louis Bliard
Summary: A study on flight initiation distance (FID) found no clear association with summer survival or winter survival, indicating that FID decisions may not have longer-term fitness consequences.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Friederike Zenth, Adriana A. Maldonado-Chaparro, Ana Solis, Stephanie Gee, Daniel T. Blumstein
Summary: Social group structure is not fixed due to demographic processes, and it is important to understand how different demographic social roles and loss of individuals with these roles modify group structure. A study on yellow-bellied marmots found that males played a key role in shaping social networks, with yearling males being a cohesive element and adult males being central players in agonistic networks. The structure of social networks is shaped by both demographic processes and individual social behavior.
Article
Biology
Joanie Van de Walle, Remi Fay, Jean-Michel Gaillard, Fanie Pelletier, Sandra Hamel, Marlene Gamelon, Christophe Barbraud, F. Guillaume Blanchet, Daniel T. Blumstein, Anne Charmantier, Karine Delord, Benjamin Larue, Julien Martin, James A. Mills, Emmanuel Milot, Francine M. Mayer, Jay Rotella, Bernt-Erik Saether, Celine Teplitsky, Martijn van de Pol, Dirk H. Van Vuren, Marcel E. Visser, Caitlin P. Wells, John Yarrall, Stephanie Jenouvrier
Summary: The slow-fast continuum is commonly used to describe variation in life-history strategies across species. However, it remains unclear whether this continuum explains life-history variation among individuals within a population.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Biology
Eleanor S. Diamant, Ian MacGregor-Fors, Daniel T. Blumstein, Pamela J. Yeh
Summary: After the COVID-19 pandemic, human activity in cities significantly changed as people worldwide stayed home. This provided an opportunity for researchers to study how urban animals respond to human disturbance, testing fundamental questions on the impact of urban behaviors on animal behavior. However, as human activity returned to cities, the effects of these shifts on wildlife in the short and long term became a concern.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Madison Pfau, Sam Degregori, Gina Johnson, Stavi R. Tennenbaum, Paul H. Barber, Conner S. Philson, Daniel T. Blumstein
Summary: There is a significant relationship between gut microbiome composition and social behavior in wild social mammals. Microbial diversity is negatively correlated with the number of social interactions an individual engaged in, and the relative abundance of certain microbes is negatively correlated with social network measures that quantify an individual's position in their social group.
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biology
Conner S. Philson, Daniel T. Blumstein
Summary: For social animals, the group social structure has significant consequences on disease and information spread. A long-term study on a wild population of yellow-bellied marmots showed that social structure had little to no relationship with survival, indicating that individual social phenotypes may not scale up to the group social phenotype. Winter survival showed a contrasting direction of selection between the group and previous research on the individual level, where less social individuals in more social groups had greater survival rates. This work provides valuable insights into the evolutionary implications of social phenotypic scales.
Article
Ecology
Sophia St. Lawrence, Daniel T. Blumstein, Julien G. A. Martin
Summary: With global climate change, animals must adjust the timing of reproduction to adapt to new environmental conditions. This study focused on how the timing of reproduction of yellow-bellied marmots changed with changing spring conditions over the past 50 years. The research showed that the timing of reproduction was not only linked to the date of emergence from hibernation, but also affected by spring snowpack. The timing of marmot reproduction might evolve via natural selection, but plastic changes are also crucial.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Daniel T. Blumstein, Norman A. Johnson, Nurit D. Katz, Samuel Kharpatin, Xochitl Ortiz-Ross, Eliseo Parra, Amanda Reshke
Summary: Biological resistance to pesticides, vaccines, antibiotics, and chemotherapies results in significant costs to society, including disease and death. Understanding biological resistance can provide insights into social resistance to change. By reviewing key insights from managing biological resistance, a framework of seven strategies to overcome resistance is developed and applied to understanding social resistance, generating potentially novel hypotheses.
EVOLUTIONARY APPLICATIONS
(2023)