A Continuum of Behavioral Plasticity in Urban and Desert Black Widows

Behavioral plasticity marks an individual's ability to modulate behavior across functional contexts. Behavioral syndromes, on the other hand, appear as consistent individual variation in behavior that is both repeatable for individuals within a functional context (e.g., consistent voracity toward prey) and correlated across contexts (e.g., high voracity toward prey and high levels of boldness toward enemies). Thus, adaptive plasticity and syndromes represent two extremes of a behavioral plasticity continuum upon which most behavioral phenotypes fall. We tested for both adaptive plasticity and behavioral syndromes in the western black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus. We measured behavior in three contexts: startle, startle + prey, and startle + mate, and found (1) classic behaviorally plastic responses to predation risk, (2) high repeatability of behavior within contexts, and (3) evidence of a correlation between startle + prey and startle + mate contexts, indicative of a behavioral syndrome. As relative behavioral plasticity may vary across populations, we also compared urban and desert populations to test whether spiders from these habitats exhibit different behaviors and/or behavioral syndromes. While we found that urban males used in mating trials courted urban females significantly more than desert females, we found no other differences in the behavior of urban and desert black widows. Thus, black widows, regardless of habitat, are characterized by both context‐specific behavioral plasticity and across‐context correlations, presenting a phenotypic complexity that is likely exhibited, to varying degrees, by most organisms.     

Navigating Contradictory Communities of Practice in Learning to Teach for Social Justice

In this article, I explore the contradictions that four new teachers experienced as their commitments to social justice collide with urban school culture. Framed within Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger's (1999) theory of situated learning and development concepts of identity, practice, and relationships illustrate how teachers' ideals are challenged as socializing features of two communities of practice—the universities and schools—intersect in new teachers' development. This research contributes empirical evidence of the application of critical multicultural teacher preparation into practice, a cultural representation of how educational inequities are reproduced or disrupted in the situated contexts of urban schools, an application of Lave and Wenger's theory of Legitimate Peripheral Participation that incorporates formal and informal education across multiple activity settings, and a call for collaborative communities of practice that support teachers' situated learning in creating transformative practices.     

A rapid indicator of cultural ecosystem service usage at a fine spatial scale: Content analysis of social media photographs

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are an important benefit that habitats provide, particularly in the fragments of natural ecosystems that remain in urban areas. To manage CES we need to understand what people use habitats for, and where different activities take place. It is challenging to assess CES provision, as surveys and interviews are time consuming and can be expensive. Social media data, particularly geo-tagged photographs, are spatially explicit and contain visual information that can be used to infer cultural use. Indicators of CES derived from social media make use of existing data so may contribute useful information for rapid, cost-effective assessments of CES. In this study we develop an indicator of CES usage that is derived from photographs from an image-sharing website, at two different scales. First, we compare four small (<150 ha) urban mangrove sites in Singapore, using photograph content to classify sites according to predominant cultural use. Second, the spatial distribution of different CES was modelled within one site using MaxEnt. A resampling simulation was conducted to identify the sensitivity of the photograph classification to the number of photographs classified. Photographs of social recreation, organisms and landscapes occurred most commonly. The proportional occurrence of photograph types differed between sites depending on their characteristics. Within one site, the probability of occurrence of social recreation photographs was highest around built focal points, while photographs of organisms were more likely in the mangrove and terrestrial habitats. Classifying more than 50–70 photographs (which would take approximately 30 minutes) gave only small increases in categorisation accuracy. This tool for CES assessment rapidly provided information that would be useful for managing Singapore's mangroves. The approach could be widely applied to assess CES provision across a range of habitats and settings, helping CES to become more commonly considered in ecosystem service evaluations.     

Manipulations of sensory experiences during development reveal mechanisms underlying vocal learning biases in zebra finches

Biological predispositions in learning can bias and constrain the cultural evolution of social and communicative behaviors (e.g., speech and birdsong), and lead to the emergence of behavioral and cultural “universals.” For example, surveys of laboratory and wild populations of zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) document consistent patterning of vocal elements (“syllables”) with respect to their acoustic properties (e.g., duration, mean frequency). Furthermore, such universal patterns are also produced by birds that are experimentally tutored with songs containing randomly sequenced syllables (“tutored birds”). Despite extensive demonstrations of learning biases, much remains to be uncovered about the nature of biological predispositions that bias song learning and production in songbirds. Here, we examined the degree to which “innate” auditory templates and/or biases in vocal motor production contribute to vocal learning biases and production in zebra finches. Such contributions can be revealed by examining acoustic patterns in the songs of birds raised without sensory exposure to song (“untutored birds”) or of birds that are unable to hear from early in development (“early‐deafened birds”). We observed that untutored zebra finches and early‐deafened zebra finches produce songs with positional variation in some acoustic features (e.g., mean frequency) that resemble universal patterns observed in tutored birds. Similar to tutored birds, early‐deafened birds also produced song motifs with alternation in acoustic features across adjacent syllables. That universal acoustic patterns are observed in the songs of both untutored and early‐deafened birds highlights the contribution motor production biases to the emergence of universals in culturally transmitted behaviors.     

Parent and offspring genotypes influence gene expression in early life

Parents can have profound effects on offspring fitness. Little, however, is known about the mechanisms through which parental genetic variation influences offspring physiology in natural systems. White‐throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis, WTSP) exist in two genetic morphs, tan and white, controlled by a large polymorphic supergene. Morphs mate disassortatively, resulting in two pair types: tan male × white female (T × W) pairs, which provide biparental care and white male × tan female (W × T) pairs, which provide female‐biased care. To investigate how parental composition impacts offspring, we performed RNA‐seq on whole blood of WTSP nestlings sampled from nests of both pair types. Parental pair type had a large effect on nestling gene expression, with 881 genes differentially expressed (DE) and seven correlated gene coexpression modules. The DE genes and modules expressed at higher levels in W × T nests with female‐biased parental care function in metabolism and stress‐related pathways resulting from the overrepresentation of proteolysis and stress‐response genes (e.g., SOD2, NR3C1). These results show that parental genotypes and/or associated behaviours influence nestling physiology, and highlight avenues of further research investigating the ultimate implications for the maintenance of this polymorphism. Nestlings also exhibited morph‐specific gene expression, with 92 differentially expressed genes, comprising immunity genes and genes encompassed by the supergene. Remarkably, we identified the same regulatory hub genes in these blood‐derived expression networks as were previously identified in adult WTSP brains (EPM2A, BPNT1, TAF5L). These hub genes were located within the supergene, highlighting the importance of this gene complex in structuring regulatory networks across diverse tissues.     

Learning from Instructional Explanations: Effects of Prompts Based on the Active-Constructive-Interactive Framework

Although instructional explanations are commonly provided when learners are introduced to new content, they often fail because they are not integrated into effective learning activities. The recently introduced active-constructive-interactive framework posits an effectiveness hierarchy in which interactive learning activities are at the top; these are then followed by constructive and active learning activities, respectively. Against this background, we combined instructional explanations with different types of prompts that were designed to elicit these learning activities and tested the central predictions of the active-constructive-interactive framework. In Experiment 1, N = 83 students were randomly assigned to one of four combinations of instructional explanations and prompts. To test the active < constructive learning hypothesis, the learners received either (1) complete explanations and engaging prompts designed to elicit active activities or (2) explanations that were reduced by inferences and inference prompts designed to engage learners in constructing the withheld information. Furthermore, in order to explore how interactive learning activities can be elicited, we gave the learners who had difficulties in constructing the prompted inferences adapted remedial explanations with either (3) unspecific engaging prompts or (4) revision prompts. In support of the active < constructive learning hypothesis, we found that the learners who received reduced explanations and inference prompts outperformed the learners who received complete explanations and engaging prompts. Moreover, revision prompts were more effective in eliciting interactive learning activities than engaging prompts. In Experiment 2, N = 40 students were randomly assigned to either (1) a reduced explanations and inference prompts or (2) a reduced explanations and inference prompts plus adapted remedial explanations and revision prompts condition. In support of the constructive < interactive learning hypothesis, the learners who received adapted remedial explanations and revision prompts as add-ons to reduced explanations and inference prompts acquired more conceptual knowledge.     

Parental Care Syndromes in House Sparrows: Positive Covariance Between Provisioning and Defense Linked to Parent Identity

Parents of many species provide multiple forms of care to their offspring. In many birds, parents often provision offspring with food and defend them from predators and/or nest‐site competitors. We tested how these two forms of parental care covary in a wild population of house sparrows (Passer domesticus). Using a behavioral reaction norm approach, we found that nestling provisioning exhibited between individual differences and positively covaried with a measure of nest defense: the propensity to attack a heterospecific nest box competitor, the European starling (Sturnis vulgaris). This result would seem to support parental investment theory and suggests that high‐provisioning parents have high‐value offspring, which they will defend more vigorously than low‐provisioning parents. In addition, we found that parents with nestlings that hatched earlier in the season and grew faster approached a model starling more frequently and tended to be more likely to strike the starling. However, we also found that although brood value explained significant variation in both nestling provisioning and nest defense, it did not eliminate the positive, between‐individual relationship between provisioning and defense. This suggests that some of the correlation between provisioning and defense is tied to individual identity and hence may be a behavioral syndrome in which differences between individuals in underlying attributes produce correlated behaviors.     

Social learning among Congo Basin hunter-gatherers

This paper explores childhood social learning among Aka and Bofi hunter-gatherers in Central Africa. Existing literature suggests that hunter-gatherer social learning is primarily vertical (parent-to-child) and that teaching is rare. We use behavioural observations, open-ended and semi-structured interviews, and informal and anecdotal observations to examine the modes (e.g. vertical versus horizontal/oblique) and processes (e.g. teaching versus observation and imitation) of cultural transmission. Cultural and demographic contexts of social learning associated with the modes and processes of cultural transmission are described. Hunter-gatherer social learning occurred early, was relatively rapid, primarily vertical under age 5 and oblique and horizontal between the ages of 6 and 12. Pedagogy and other forms of teaching existed as early as 12 months of age, but were relatively infrequent by comparison to other processes of social learning such as observation and imitation.     

Bourdieu’s Cultural Capital in Relation to Food Choices: A Systematic Review of Cultural Capital Indicators and an Empirical Proof of Concept

Objective

Unhealthy food choices follow a socioeconomic gradient that may partly be explained by one’s ‘cultural capital’, as defined by Bourdieu. We aim 1) to carry out a systematic review to identify existing quantitative measures of cultural capital, 2) to develop a questionnaire to measure cultural capital for food choices, and 3) to empirically test associations of socioeconomic position with cultural capital and food choices, and of cultural capital with food choices.

Design

We systematically searched large databases for the key-word ‘cultural capital’ in title or abstract. Indicators of objectivised cultural capital and family institutionalised cultural capital, as identified by the review, were translated to food choice relevant indicators. For incorporated cultural capital, we used existing questionnaires that measured the concepts underlying the variety of indicators as identified by the review, i.e. participation, skills, knowledge, values. The questionnaire was empirically tested in a postal survey completed by 2,953 adults participating in the GLOBE cohort study, The Netherlands, in 2011.

Results

The review yielded 113 studies that fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Several indicators of family institutionalised (e.g. parents’ education completed) and objectivised cultural capital (e.g. possession of books, art) were consistently used. Incorporated cultural capital was measured with a large variety of indicators (e.g. cultural participation, skills). Based on this, we developed a questionnaire to measure cultural capital in relation to food choices. An empirical test of the questionnaire showed acceptable overall internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha of .654; 56 items), and positive associations between socioeconomic position and cultural capital, and between cultural capital and healthy food choices.

Conclusions

Cultural capital may be a promising determinant for (socioeconomic inequalities in) food choices.     

Recognition of Young in A Colonially Nesting Bird

Parents ought to restrict costly parental care to their genetic offspring and, particularly when the risk of misdirecting care is high, parent‐offspring recognition may evolve. I tested whether adult cave swallows, which nest in dense colonies and feed fledglings in mixed‐family groups, discriminate against unrelated young, using temporary chick transfers at two nestling ages and a cross‐fostering experiment. Temporary chick transfers indicated that parents bias feedings toward their own offspring near fledging (18 d) but not at about halfway through the nesting period (10 d). I also examined how parents learn to identify their offspring by cross‐fostering young 3 d after hatching and testing parental response 2 wks later. Adults did not favor their own offspring over unrelated nestlings when both were unfamiliar to the focal parents. However, when parents encountered two of their own offspring, one of which was reared by foster parents, they preferentially fed the familiar nestling. By recognizing young, cave swallow parents reduce some risks of misdirected parental investment (mobile fledglings) but not others (extra‐pair young and intraspecific brood parasitism).     

Teaching Elsewhere: Anthropological Pedagogy,Racism and Indifference in a Hong Kong Classroom

This essay is concerned with the political, historical and cultural contexts of teaching and learning in Hong Kong, focusing on my recent experiences of tertiary teaching there. Although an emphasis on rote learning driven by an exam oriented educational trajectory is now widely criticised, strong institutional and social forces still operate to produce a student body highly resistant to radicalising discourses. I argue that cultural indifference, chauvinism and racism pervade the classroom, posing particular challenges for anthropological pedagogy.     

Responses by Central‐Place Foragers to Manipulations of Brood Size: Parent Flickers Respond to Proximate Cues but do not Increase Work Rate

Manipulations of brood size measure the willingness or ability of parents to invest in offspring and different reproductive roles may lead to differences in feeding effort between the sexes. Parental investment in birds is usually assessed by quantifying feeding rates, but this provides an incomplete picture of parental effort because it fails to account for how parents collect food on the landscape. We studied northern flickers (Colaptes auratus), a woodpecker in which males provide the majority of parental care and used a repeated measures design and short‐term (24 h) brood enlargements (N = 35) and reductions (N = 27) to assess effects of treatment on feeding rates to nestlings and parental foraging behaviour. Parents of enlarged broods did not significantly increase feeding rate, resulting in a decline in nestling mass. Parents of reduced broods decreased their feeding rates by 84%, but increased per capita feeding rates, resulting in nestling mass gain. The variation in feeding rates to enlarged broods was not influenced by feather corticosterone, body condition, feather re‐growth rate or mass change between the incubation and nestling periods. Foraging pattern on the landscape remained the same during the enlarged treatment for both sexes. We conclude that flickers respond to proximate cues in brood demands, but do not increase feeding rates to enlarged broods, at least in the short term. A literature review suggested that this lack of response is atypical for short‐lived species. We hypothesize that parents in species with large home ranges and long nestling periods face energetic limitations that constrain their ability to respond to enlarged broods. We encourage future studies to assess foraging behaviour on the landscape to document important trade‐offs for parents such as predation risk and energy expenditure while feeding offspring.     

Language choices in the teaching of human reproduction

The choice of which language strategies to use in schools in Africa is the subject of much debate. In the Life Sciences, cultural issues associated with the use of biological terminology add to this debate. In our study, we examined the language choices made by Grade 7 Natural Sciences teachers in South Africa during their teaching of human reproduction. A mixed method approach was employed, involving firstly a survey questionnaire amongst 40 teachers in urban schools followed by a multiple case study of 10 of these teachers. Data were collected during classroom observations by means of field notes and audio-recordings followed by interviews which were transcribed and coded. We found that teachers used a variety of language strategies including use of home languages, English or code switching. The teacher’s and/or learners’ fluency in English and the teacher’s perception of the need for learners to feel at ease when discussing human reproduction influenced their choices. In addition, teachers’ belief in the importance of using biological terminology rather than traditional metaphors in order to create a more formal and thus respectful discourse, led them to use the English version of the biological terms. We argue that different language choices are appropriate for different urban contexts, and that teachers should use the language/s in which learners are most comfortable in order to enable deep and rich discussions on the sensitive subject of human reproduction.     

Genetic mapping of biomass yield in three interconnected Miscanthus populations

Improving biomass yield is a major goal of Miscanthus breeding. We conducted a study on one interspecific Miscanthus sinensis × Miscanthus sacchariflorus F₁ population and two intraspecific M. sinensis F₁ populations, each of which shared a common parent. A field trial was established at Urbana, IL during spring 2011, and phenotypic data were collected in 2012 and 2013 for fourteen yield traits. Six high‐density parental genetic maps, as well as a consensus genetic map integrating M. sinensis and M. sacchariflorus, were developed via the pseudotestcross strategy for noninbred parents with ≥1214 single‐nucleotide polymorphism markers generated from restriction site‐associated DNA sequencing. We confirmed for the first time a whole‐genome duplication in M. sacchariflorus relative to Sorghum bicolor, similar to that observed previously for M. sinensis. Four quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis methods for detecting marker‐trait associations were compared: (1) individual parental map composite interval mapping analysis, (2) individual parental map stepwise analysis, (3) consensus map single‐population stepwise analysis and (4) consensus map joint‐population stepwise analysis. These four methods detected 288, 264, 133 and 109 total QTLs, which resolved into 157, 136, 106 and 86 meta‐QTLs based on QTL congruency, respectively, including a set of 59 meta‐QTLs common to all four analysis methods. Composite interval mapping and stepwise analysis co‐identified 118 meta‐QTLs across six parental maps, suggesting high reliability of stepwise regression in QTL detection. Joint‐population stepwise analysis yielded the highest resolution of QTLs compared to the other three methods across all meta‐QTLs. Strong, frequently advantageous transgressive segregation in the three populations indicated a promising future for breeding new higher‐yielding cultivars of Miscanthus.     

The biodiversity–ecosystem service relationship in urban areas: a quantitative review

By 2050, up to 75% of people globally will live in cities. Despite the potential ramifications of this urbanization for ecosystem services (ES), and the importance of locally produced ES for the health and wellbeing of urban residents, syntheses addressing the underlying ecology of ES provision rarely include urban areas. Here, I conduct a quantitative review of urban ES studies in the ecological literature, synthesizing trends across the discipline. I also quantify the extent to which this work considers the organisms and ecosystem components responsible for ES provision using two approaches: assessment of biodiversity–ES relationships, and an adaptation of the service provider concept. The majority of urban ES studies were conducted in western, developed countries, and typically assessed a single service in a single city – largely ignoring ES synergies and tradeoffs, and cross‐city comparisons. While several different ES are studied in urban ecosystems, the field is dominated by weather and climate‐related regulating services, with assessments of cultural services particularly lacking. Most studies described a habitat type as the service provider; however, studies that considered the biodiversity–ES relationship were more likely to identify a specific functional group, community, or population as the key provider of an ES. The biodiversity–ES relationship itself was most frequently characterized as dependent on the composition of species, functional traits, or structures, rather than correlated with the magnitude of any specific biodiversity metric. While the study of ES in urban ecosystems is increasing, there exists considerable room for further research. Future studies would benefit by expanding the number and categories of ES assessed within and across cities, as well as broadening the geographical scope of urban ES research. Biodiversity–ES assessments in urban ecosystems would also benefit from an expansion of the biodiversity types considered, particularly regarding non‐species based approaches, and consideration of non‐native and invasive species. Synthesis Urban ecosystem services (ES) affect the health and wellbeing of over 3.5 billion people who live in cities. However, syntheses addressing ES provision rarely include urban areas. I conducted the first quantitative review focused explicitly on the ecology of urban ES, including the role of biodiversity in service provision. I found that studies typically measure only a single service in one city, precluding assessment of ES synergies, tradeoffs, and cross‐city comparisons. I also found that while most studies attribute ES provision to a habitat or land‐use type, studies that consider biodiversity‐ES relationships are more likely to recognize a specific functional group, community, or population as the key provider of an ES.     

A multivariate analysis integrating ecological,socioeconomic and physical characteristics to investigate urban forest cover and plant diversity in Beijing,China

Understanding the factors driving the variation in urban green space and plant communities in heterogeneous urban landscapes is crucial for maintaining biodiversity and important ecosystem services. In this study, we used a combination of field surveys, remote sensing, census data and spatial analysis to investigate the interrelationships among geographical and social-economic variables across 328 different urban structural units (USUs) and how they may influence the distributions of urban forest cover, plant diversity and abundance, within the central urban area of Beijing, China. We found that the urban green space coverage varied substantially across different types of USUs, with higher in agricultural lands (N = 15), parks (N = 46) and lowest in utility zones (N = 36). The amount of urban green space within USUs declines exponentially with the distance to urban center. Our study suggested that geographical, social and economic factors were closely related with each other in urban ecological systems, and have important impacts on urban forest coverage and abundance. The percentage of forest as well as high and low density urban areas were mainly responsible for variations in the data across all USUs and all land use/land cover types, and thus are important constituents and ecological indicators for understanding and modeling urban environment. Herb richness is more strongly correlated with tree and shrub density than with tree and shrub richness (r = −0.472, p < 0.05). However, other geographic and socioeconomic factors showed no significant relationships with urban plant diversity or abundance.     

The (bidirectional) associations between romantic attachment orientations and mate retention behavior in male-female romantic couples

Attachment orientations of anxiety and avoidance are associated with many important romantic relationship outcomes. An evolutionary perspective has informed research on the associations between attachment orientations and mate retention behaviors, which individuals perform to retain their romantic partner and maintain their relationship. In the current article, we report two dyadic studies (n = 104, United States; n = 978, Germany, Switzerland, Austria) that evaluated: (1) whether bivariate associations between attachment orientations and mate retention domains are replicable; (2) whether an individual's attachment orientation predicts their partner's mate retention behaviors; and (3) whether, over time, mate retention behaviors predict attachment orientations within couples. Results of both studies replicated previous bivariate associations between attachment anxiety and cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors. Longitudinal dyadic data from Study 2 demonstrated that cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors, specifically, predict future attachment anxiety in romantic partners. These results contribute to the emerging body of research addressing the associations between attachment orientations and mate retention behaviors, and suggest an important (bidirectional) role of attachment anxiety in predicting negative partner-directed behaviors in romantic relationships.     

Student conceptions about energy in biological contexts

The concept of energy serves biologists as a powerful analytical model to describe phenomena that occurs in the natural world. Due to the concept’s relevance, educational standards of different countries identify energy as a core idea for the teaching and learning of biology and other science subjects. However, previous research on students’ energy understanding has mostly focused on physics contexts. This cross-sectional study extends insight to the field by providing a systematic analysis of students’ (N = 30, grades 5, 7, 9, 11) conceptions about energy in biological contexts. In order to connect the findings to previous research, the study analyses conceptions about four energy aspects that are regarded as central for understanding the concept in different disciplinary contexts, i.e. (1) energy forms/sources, (2) transfer/transformation, (3) degradation/dissipation and (4) energy conservation. The findings identify substantial changes in students’ conceptions about energy between the different grade levels, but also highlight conceptions that students consistently employed across age groups. The results are discussed in the light of previous research on students’ progressing energy understanding and the connection of their energy understanding across different disciplinary contexts. Lastly, the article provides implications for the further development of energy teaching in biological contexts.     

Parental substance misuse and reproductive timing in offspring: A genetically informed study

Parents with substance misuse provide their children with a potentially risky rearing environment. According to the evolutionary life history theory, such environments steer individuals towards faster reproductive strategy. However, parents providing their children with hazardous environments may also pass on genes associated with early parenthood. In register data on individuals born in Sweden 1973–1993 (N = 2,176,128), the hazard ratio of entering parenthood by age 25 was 1.70 (95% CI 1.69–1.72) and 1.85 (1.82–1.89) among offspring of fathers and mothers with substance misuse, respectively, compared to others. In analyses using an offspring-of-siblings design in three types of parental sibling pairs (half siblings, full siblings and dizygotic twins, and monozygotic twins) increasingly controlling for genetic confounding, associations between parental substance misuse and offspring's early reproduction gradually attenuated. Our results suggest that the association between parental substance misuse and earlier parenthood in offspring is at least partly genetically confounded. Life history theory should be further tested with genetically informative research designs.