Abstract
The theory of behavioral syndromes focuses on quantifying variation in behavior within and among individual organisms and attempts to account for the maintenance of differences in behavior that occur in a consistent manner among individuals. Behavioral syndromes have potentially important ecological consequences (e.g. survivorship tradeoffs) and can be shaped by population dynamics through selective mortality. Here, we search for any evidence for consistency of behavior across situations in juveniles of a common damselfish, Pomacentrus amboinensis (Pomacentridae) at the transition between larval habitats in the plankton and juvenile habitats on the reef. Naïve fish leaving the pelagic phase to settle on reefs were caught by light traps and their behaviors observed using similar methods across three different situations (small aquaria, large aquaria, field setting); all of which represent low risk and well-sheltered environments. Seven behavioral traits were compared within and among individuals across situations to determine if consistent behavioral syndromes existed. No consistency was found in any single or combination of behavioral traits for individuals across all situations. We suggest that high behavioral flexibility is likely beneficial for newly-settled fish at this ontogenetic transition and it is possible that consistent behavioral syndromes are unlikely to emerge in juveniles until environmental experience is gained or certain combinations of behaviors are favored by selective mortality.
Highlights
The study of individual consistency in animal behavior has attracted recent attention from researchers because of the potential for this variability to reflect underlying processes influencing an animal’s responses to a range of situations and for it to have significant effects on fitness [1,2]
Our study examines whether naıve juveniles of the Ambon damselfish (Pomacentrus amboinensis) display consistent behavioral traits across three low-risk situations
Juvenile P. amboinensis settle from the plankton at night to a variety of habitats in the northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) [29] with the greatest densities found on small reef patches at the base of shallow (,10 m depth) reefs
Summary
The study of individual consistency in animal behavior has attracted recent attention from researchers because of the potential for this variability to reflect underlying processes influencing an animal’s responses to a range of situations and for it to have significant effects on fitness [1,2]. Sih and Bell (2008) define within-individual consistency as occurring when an individual behaves in a consistent way over time or across situations (e.g. absence vs presence of predators) [8]. Between-individual consistency occurs when there is a correlation between behavioral traits (e.g. boldness and aggression) among individuals. Having behavioral consistency either withinand between-individuals is termed a behavioral syndrome [1,8]. Individual consistency in one behavioral trait (e.g. activity rate in different situations) is referred to as a behavioral type [1]
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