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Metabolic scope as a proximate constraint on individual behavioral variation: effects on personality, plasticity, and predictability

journal contribution
posted on 2018-08-01, 00:00 authored by Peter BiroPeter Biro, T Garland, Christa BeckmannChrista Beckmann, Beata UjvariBeata Ujvari, F Thomas, J R Post
Behavioral ecologists have hypothesized that among-individual differences in resting metabolic rate (RMR) may predict consistent individual differences in mean values for costly behaviors or for behaviors that affect energy intake rate. This hypothesis has empirical support and presently attracts considerable attention, but, notably, it does not provide predictions for individual differences in (a) behavioral plasticity or (b) unexplained variation (residual variation from mean individual behavior, here termed predictability). We outline how consideration of aerobic maximum metabolic rate (MMR) and particularly aerobic scope (= MMR − RMR) can be used to simultaneously make predictions about mean and among- and within-individual variation in behavior. We predict that while RMR should be proportional to an individual’s mean level of sustained behavioral activity (one aspect of its personality), individuals with greater aerobic scope will also have greater scope to express behavioral plasticity and/or greater unpredictability in behavior (=greater residual variation). As a first step toward testing these predictions, we analyze existing activity data from selectively bred lines of mice that differ in both daily activity and aerobic scope. We find that replicate high-scope mice are more active on average and show greater among-individual variation in activity, greater among-individual variation in plasticity, and greater unpredictability. These data provide some tentative first support for our hypothesis, suggesting that further research on this topic would be valuable.

History

Journal

American naturalist

Volume

192

Issue

2

Pagination

142 - 154

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Location

Chicago, Ill.

ISSN

0003-0147

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2018, The University of Chicago