Download How phylogenetic constraints and environmental pressures on their

How phylogenetic constraints and environmental pressures on their
acoustic communication influence conservation prospects of the
Malagasy mouse lemurs
Supervisors
Main supervisor: Doctor Marc Holderied (University of Bristol)
Co-supervisor: Doctor Grainne McCabe (
Bristol Zoological Society, affiliated with the University of Bristol
)
Co-supervisor: Dr Christoph Schwitzer (
Bristol Zoological Society (Director of Conservation) & European Association for the Study and
Conservation of Lemurs (AEECL; Secretary)
)
Project enquiries - Email: [email protected] Contact number: +44 (0) 0117 39 41190
Host Institution: University of Bristol
Project description
There is an ongoing debate about the role of phylogeny versus the influence of the local environment
in shaping animal behaviour, because both factors can profoundly impact a species’ behavioural
phenotype. It is imperative to understand the environmental pressures vs phylogenetic constraints
argument because both factors play a major role in governing the distribution of animal populations in
forest habitats, which is crucial for predicting the population dynamics of threatened species. To
tease apart the role of phylogeny and environment on vocalizations, this project examines the vocal
repertoire of 12 recently diverged mouse lemur species from the genus Microcebus, in a variety of
habitats over a limited geographic location, Madagascar.
Environmental pressures play an important role in the evolution of species-specific traits, with
behaviours that are required to increase the animal’s survival chance most likely to be more flexible
to adaptation. Vocal communication is vital to carry a variety of information to other members of the
population regarding predators, mating opportunities and food presence; therefore it should be highly
flexible to environmental and social pressures (Obrist, 1995). Understanding vocal repertoire
flexibility level is important because it enables us to determine how species will adapt their methods
of vocal communication to rapidly changing environmental conditions. While flexibility of some
aspects of behaviour have been studied extensively; e.g., dietary, ranging, dispersal, the flexibility of
vocalization behaviour in relation to ecological variation and/or proximity of closely related species
has not been fully examined.
Mouse lemurs are a model clade for this study as the number of species in the Microcebus genus is
large; i.e. 21 species (Mittermeier et al. 2010). This study will include species from three different
habitats in order to examine the ecological variation impact on vocalizations: the Western dry forests,
Eastern rainforests and transitional North-West Sambirano forests. The most common vocalisation
types of 12 Microcebus species, four from each habitat, will be collected using acoustic recording
equipment and will be used to compile species-specific vocal repertoires. Each species’ vocal
repertoire will be analysed to investigate:
•
Environmental pressure: Do species living within the same habitat have a more similar
vocal repertoire compared to those from other habitats? Do the acoustic transmission properties of a
habitat have an influence on adaptation of the vocal repertoire?
•
Phylogenetic influences: Do species that are more recently diverged from each other,
and thus more closely related, have a more similar vocal repertoire, independent of environmental
influence?
References
•
Mittermeier, RA., Louis JR, EE., Richardson, M., Schwitzer, C., Lingrand, O., Rylands,
AB., Hawkins, F., Rajaobelina, S., Ratsimbazafy, J., Rasoloarison, R., Roos, C., Kappeler, PM. and
Mackinnon, J. (2000) Lemurs of Madagascar. Third Edition. Conservation Internation, US.
•
Obrist, MK. (1995) Flexible bat echolocation: The influence of individual, habitat and
conspecifics on sonar signal design. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology. 36, pp. 207-219.
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