Dataset Information

Food Income and the Evolution of Forager Mobility.

ABSTRACT: Forager mobility tends to be high, although ethnographic studies indicate ecological factors such as resource abundance and reliability, population density and effective temperature influence the cost-to-benefit assessment of movement decisions. We investigate the evolution of mobility using an agent-based and spatially explicit cultural evolutionary model that considers the feedback between foragers and their environment. We introduce Outcomes Clustering, an approach to categorizing simulated system states arising from complex stochastic processes shaped by multiple interacting parameters. We find that decreased mobility evolves under conditions of high resource replenishment and low resource depletion, with a concomitant trend of increased population density and, counter-intuitively, decreased food incomes. Conversely, increased mobility co-occurs with lower population densities and higher food incomes. We replicate the well-known relationships between mobility, population density, and resource quality, while predicting reduced food income, and consequently the reduction in health status observed in early sedentary populations without the need to invoke factors such as reduced diet quality or increased pathogen loads.

SUBMITTER: Gallagher E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6443647 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Food Income and the Evolution of Forager Mobility.

Gallagher Elizabeth E Shennan Stephen S Thomas Mark G MG

Scientific reports 20190401 1

Forager mobility tends to be high, although ethnographic studies indicate ecological factors such as resource abundance and reliability, population density and effective temperature influence the cost-to-benefit assessment of movement decisions. We investigate the evolution of mobility using an agent-based and spatially explicit cultural evolutionary model that considers the feedback between foragers and their environment. We introduce Outcomes Clustering, an approach to categorizing simulated s ...[more]

PMID: 30932031

Similar Datasets

Project description:Perceived predation risk varies in space and time. Foraging in this landscape of fear alters forager-resource interactions via cascading nonconsumptive effects. Estimating these indirect effects is difficult in natural systems. Here, we applied a novel measure to quantify the diversity at giving-up density that allows to test how spatial variation in perceived predation risk modifies the diversity of multispecies resources at local and regional spatial levels. Furthermore, we evaluated whether the nonconsumptive effects on resource species diversity can be explained by the preferences of foragers for specific functional traits and by the forager species richness. We exposed rodents of a natural community to artificial food patches, each containing an initial multispecies resource community of eight species (10 items each) mixed in sand. We sampled 35 landscapes, each containing seven patches in a spatial array, to disentangle effects at local (patch) and landscape levels. We used vegetation height as a proxy for perceived predation risk. After a period of three nights, we counted how many and which resource species were left in each patch to measure giving-up density and resource diversity at the local level (alpha diversity) and the regional level (gamma diversity and beta diversity). Furthermore, we used wildlife cameras to identify foragers and assess their species richness. With increasing vegetation height, i.e., decreasing perceived predation risk, giving-up density, and local alpha and regional gamma diversity decreased, and patches became less similar within a landscape (beta diversity increased). Foragers consumed more of the bigger and most caloric resources. The higher the forager species richness, the lower the giving-up density, and alpha and gamma diversity. Overall, spatial variation of perceived predation risk of foragers had measurable cascading effects on local and regional resource species biodiversity, independent of the forager species. Thus, nonconsumptive predation effects modify forager-resource interactions and might act as an equalizing mechanism for species coexistence.

Project description:ImportanceResiding in a low-income neighborhood is generally associated with worse pregnancy outcomes. It is not known if moving from a low- to higher-income area between 2 pregnancies alters the risk of adverse birth outcomes in the subsequent birth compared with women who remain in low-income areas for both births.ObjectiveTo compare the risk of adverse maternal and newborn outcomes among women who achieved upward area-level income mobility vs those who did not.Design, setting, and participantsThis population-based cohort study was completed in Ontario, Canada, from 2002 to 2019, where there is universal health care. Included were all nulliparous women with a first-time singleton birth at 20 to 42 weeks' gestation, each residing in a low-income urban neighborhood at the time of the first birth. All women were then assessed at their second birth. Statistical analysis was conducted from August 2022 to April 2023.ExposureMovement from a lowest-income quintile (Q1) neighborhood to any higher-income quintile neighborhood (Q2-Q5) between the first and second birth.Main outcomes and measuresThe maternal outcome was severe maternal morbidity or mortality (SMM-M) at the second birth hospitalization or up to 42 days post partum. The primary perinatal outcome was severe neonatal morbidity or mortality (SNM-M) within 27 days of the second birth. Relative risks (aRR) and absolute risk differences (aARD) were estimated by adjusting for maternal and infant characteristics.ResultsA total of 42 208 (44.1%) women (mean [SD] age at second birth, 30.0 [5.2] years) experienced upward area-level income mobility, and 53 409 (55.9%) women (age at second birth, 29.0 [5.4] years) remained in income Q1 between births. Relative to women who remained in income Q1 between births, those with upward mobility had a lower associated risk of SMM-M (12.0 vs 13.3 per 1000 births), with an aRR of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.78 to 0.93) and aARD of -2.09 per 1000 (95% CI, -3.1 to -0.9 per 1000 ). Likewise, their newborns experienced lower respective rates of SNM-M (48.0 vs 50.9 per 1000 live births), with an aRR of 0.91 (95% CI, 0.87 to 0.95) and aARD of -4.7 per 1000 (95% CI, -6.8 to -2.6 per 1000).Conclusions and relevanceIn this cohort study of nulliparous women living in low-income areas, those who moved to a higher-income area between births experienced less morbidity and death in their second pregnancy, as did their newborns, compared with those who remained in low-income areas between births. Research is needed to determine whether financial incentives or enhancement of neighborhood factors can reduce adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes.

Project description:IntroductionPeople are increasingly mobile for numerous reasons, including healthcare. Patient mobility has vast implications for individuals, communities and whole populations and yet, to date, research on patient mobility has been quite limited. Only a small body of evidence exists on patient mobility between low-income and middle-income countries, instead having focused primarily on cross-border movement between high-income and low-income countries. In this paper, we present a protocol for examining this under-studied phenomenon.Methods and analysisWe propose to examine patient mobility between low-income and middle-income countries using a realist synthesis approach. Specifically, we aim to document why patients from low-income and middle-income countries cross international borders for healthcare, by identifying the mechanisms through which patients decide to cross-borders, and the contextual characteristics of domestic health markets that influence this choice. An underlying theory was established, based on the lead author's experience and a brief literature review, which will provide the basis to analyse search results in a subsequent paper. Search results will be obtained from databases (Ovid Medline, EMBASE, Scopus, EconLit, Web of Science) and the grey literature. An expert committee will be enlisted, prior to screening results, to review search results to ensure comprehensiveness. Based on this preliminary theory, we propose that, in some low-income and middle-income country markets, the interaction between demand-side and supply-side determinants results in market imperfections that, in turn, lead to patient movement across borders.Ethics and disseminationThe study does not involve primary research and, therefore, does not require formal ethical approval; we do, however, follow the relevant standards of utility, usefulness, feasibility, propriety, accuracy and accountability. The standards of realist and meta-narrative evidence synthesis (RAMESES) will be adhered to in reporting the findings of the review. Once completed, the findings of the resulting manuscript will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.Trial registration numberThis protocol has been registered with PROSPERO, registration number CRD42014014391.

Dataset Information

Food Income and the Evolution of Forager Mobility.

Publications

Food Income and the Evolution of Forager Mobility.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets