Social competition within- and among-species: drivers of pace-of-life in wild passerine birds?

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Niels Dingemanse
• Subject Area: Sensory and Behavioural Biology ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: since 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 326689795

Contemporary behavioural ecology increasingly focuses on the question of why individual animals differ in suites of correlated behavioural and morphological traits, whether those differences are associated with life-history variation, and whether life-history trade-offs can explain the evolutionary maintenance of this variation in “pace-of-life”. There is considerable debate on this issue because life-history trade-offs cannot by themselves maintain variation. Our overarching aim is to test the predictions of a novel eco-evolutionary explanation that has great potential to resolve this debate. The framework has wide applicability, and can explain variation among species, populations, genotypes, and individuals alike. We propose that variation in pace-of-life results from a trade-off between intrinsic rate of density-independent reproduction and competitive ability. This incorporates ecological variation required to maintain variation as faster (vs. slower) paces-of-life are favoured when competition for resources is relaxed (vs. intensified). We will test this new idea by combining behavioural ecology and quantitative genetics, and by applying experimental and population comparative approaches. Key objectives are: (WP1) To manipulate intra- and interspecific competitive regimes as drivers of selection on pace-of-life syndromes within and among species; we will use sympatric nest box populations of blue and great tits as a perfect model. (WP2) To use DNA metabarcoding of faecal samples to acquire quantitative estimates of relative abundances of arthropods (and the plants those ate) in the tits’ diet to study whether habitat selection and dietary specialisation mediate pace-of-life-related adaptations to intra- and interspecific competitive regimes. (WP3) To study whether competition-related selection on pace-of-life can explain variation in behaviour, morphology, and life history among populations, among-genotypes within populations, and among-individuals within genotypes, thus, among all major levels of the biological hierarchy. This latter aim will be achieved using long-term pedigreed datasets of >40 European blue and great tit populations monitored by European researchers collaborating through SPI-Birds. The proposed work will provide crucial new insights in the adaptive integration of behaviour, morphology, and life history, and the role of intra- and inter-specific competition as drivers of the maintenance of variation among species, populations, genotypes, and individuals in natural populations.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants