Is the speed of adjusting to environmental change condition dependent? An experiment with house mice (Mus musculus).

ABSTRACT: Environmental conditions change constantly either by anthropogenic perturbation or naturally across space and time. Often, a change in behavior is the first response to changing conditions. Behavioral flexibility can potentially improve an organism's chances to survive and reproduce. Currently, we lack an understanding on the time-scale such behavioral adjustments need, how they actually affect reproduction and survival and whether behavioral adjustments are sufficient in keeping up with changing conditions. We used house mice (Mus musculus) to test whether personality and life-history traits can adjust to an experimentally induced food-switch flexibly in adulthood or by intergenerational plasticity, that is, adjustments only becoming visible in the offspring generation. Mice lived

SUBMITTER: Lopez-Hervas K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11256001 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature