Revisiting the role of behavior-mediated structuring in the survival of populations in hostile environments.
Commun Biol
; 7(1): 93, 2024 01 12.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38216662
ABSTRACT
Increasing the population density of target species is a major goal of ecosystem and agricultural management. This task is especially challenging in hazardous environments with a high abundance of natural enemies such as parasites and predators. Safe locations with lower mortality have been long considered a beneficial factor in enhancing population survival, being a promising tool in commercial fish farming and restoration of threatened species. Here we challenge this opinion and revisit the role of behavior structuring in a hostile environment in shaping the population density. We build a mathematical model, where individuals are structured according to their defensive tactics against natural enemies. The model predicts that although each safe zone enhances the survival of an individual, for an insufficient number of such zones, the entire population experiences a greater overall mortality. This is a result of the interplay of emergent dynamical behavioral structuring and strong intraspecific competition for safe zones. Non-plastic structuring in individuals' boldness reduces the mentioned negative effects. We demonstrate emergence of non-plastic behavioral structuring the evolutionary branching of a monomorphic population into a dimorphic one with bold/shy strains. We apply our modelling approach to explore fish farming of salmonids in an environment infected by trematode parasites.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Contexto em Saúde:
3_ND
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Salmonidae
/
Ecossistema
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Commun Biol
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article