Evolution and behavioural responses to human-induced rapid environmental change

By Andrew Sih, M. Ferrari, David J. Harris. Evolutionary Applications, 2011

1,188 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Almost all organisms live in environments that have been altered, to some degree, by human activities. Because behaviour mediates interactions between an individual and its environment, the ability of organisms to behave appropriately under these new conditions is crucial for determining their immediate success or failure in these modified environments. While hundreds of species are suffering dramatically from these environmental changes, others, such as urbanized and pest species, are doing better than ever. Our goal is to provide insights into explaining such variation. We first summarize the responses of some species to novel situations, including novel risks and resources, habitat loss/fragmentation, pollutants and climate change. Using a sensory ecology approach, we present a mechanistic framework for predicting variation in behavioural responses to environmental change, drawing from models of decision‐making processes and an understanding of the selective background against which they evolved. Where immediate behavioural responses are inadequate, learning or evolutionary adaptation may prove useful, although these mechanisms are also constrained by evolutionary history. Although predicting the responses of species to environmental change is difficult, we highlight the need for a better understanding of the role of evolutionary history in shaping individuals’ responses to their environment and provide suggestion for future work.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2e7d6e4fd40fff4f8f088b6c61a93d5f3a6f01ad

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Citations in the corpus

Mechanistic, ecological, and evolutionary consequences of artificial light at night for insects: review and prospective (2019, background): “Introduction Human-induced rapid environmental changes (HIREC; Sih et al., 2011), such as climate change, habitat loss or fragmentation, and pollution, represent threats to living organisms (Candolin & Wong, 2012; van Baaren & Candolin, 2018).”
Passive gear‐induced timidity syndrome in wild fish populations and its potential ecological and managerial implications (2017, neutral): “…of increased timidity If populations exploited by passive gear are indeed systematically more timid than unexploited populations, this could have far-reaching consequences for social, population and community dynamics (Sih et al. 2011; Palkovacs et al. 2012) and the sustainability of fisheries.”
The Implications of Primate Behavioral Flexibility for Sustainable Human–Primate Coexistence in Anthropogenic Habitats (2017, background): “This reminds us that not all behavioral adjustments to 71 anthropogenic habitats are beneficial (see Sih et al. 2011; Tuomainen and Candolin 2011; Wong and 72 Candolin 2015), with some behaviors compromising the survival of primate populations, for example 73 by inciting persecution by people.”
Urbanization Is Associated with Divergence in Pace-of-Life in Great Tits (2017, background): “The urban matrix and its progression across rural landscapes represent for many organisms a drastic and very rapid change in environmental conditions compared to the natural habitats where they have evolved (Sih et al., 2011).”
An overview of the evolutionary causes and consequences of behavioural plasticity (2013, background): “A major topical question is understanding how species respond to such rapid human-induced environmental change (Sih et al. 2011; Tuomainen & Candolin 2011).”
Effect of hypoxia and anoxia on invertebrate behaviour: Ecological perspectives from species to community level (2013, background): “A key issue is understanding how species respond to such rapid human-induced environmental change (Sih et al., 2011; Tuomainen and Candolin, 2011).”
Ecology in an anthropogenic biosphere (2015, background): “…it is likely that the ecological patterns and processes recognized as natural at these sites are in fact substantially altered by sociocultural niche construction (Rackham 1980, Cronon 1983, Redman 1999, Grayson 2001, Briggs et al. 2006, Sih et al. 2011, Cuddington 2012, Higgs et al. 2014).”
Plastic animals in cages: behavioural flexibility and responses to captivity (2013, background): “Examples of ‘human-induced rapid environmental change’ (HIREC: Sih 2011; Sih et al. 2011) include deforestation, urbanization, climate change, introductions of novel predators or parasites, local extinctions of preferred food items and relocations to new sites (also see papers in this special issue…”
Understanding variation in behavioural responses to human-induced rapid environmental change: a conceptual overview (2013, background): “Evolutionary responses to HIREC have been discussed elsewhere (Hendry et al. 2011; Lankau et al. 2011; Sih et al. 2011).”
Evolutionary and ecological traps for brown bears Ursus arctos in human‐modified landscapes (2018, background): “These habitat alterations engender the emergence of traps resulting from either: 1) attraction for low- fitness options, 2) degraded fitness opportunities without a concomitant decrease in preference, or 3) both attraction and degradation simultaneously (Sih et al. 2011, Robertson et al. 2013, Fig.”
Effects of Pollution on Fish Behavior, Personality, and Cognition: Some Research Perspectives (2020, background): “Behavioral and cognitive responses are central in adaptive processes, because they are shaped by past evolution, and can in turn facilitate or impede adaptive responses to pollution and other stressors (Sih et al., 2011) (Figure 1).”
Ecological implications of behavioural syndromes. (2012, background): “A critical ecological and evolutionary issue is the need to better understand organismal responses to human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) that often puts organisms in evolutionarily novel conditions (Sih et al. 2011).”