Influence of ecology and social interactions on the early evolution of family life.

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Susanne Foitzik, since 2/2016
• Subject Area: Evolution, Anthropology ; Sensory and Behavioural Biology ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: from 2013 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 235565503

A long-lasting problem in evolutionary biology is to understand why some animals live in families, whereas others prefer solitary life. In this context, a major issue concerns which factors promote the emergence and maintenance of family interactions. The two projects presented here will address this question by testing how resource availability and sibling interactions shape the early evolution of family life. Limited resource availability has been traditionally considered as a key promoter of family life, because the benefits of care are likely to be substantial under such environment. However, recent works demonstrated that limited resources may also generate conditions under which parental presence becomes detrimental to offspring survival and parental care mal-adaptive. The first project will investigate the short- and long-term effects of low resource availability on family interactions and how this factor possibly favours switch from solitary to family life. In addition to environmental conditions, tight interactions between family members are also likely to shape the evolution of family life. Whereas numerous studies investigated how antagonistic interactions between offspring affect family traits, recent works revealed that forms of cooperation possibly occur between siblings and might contribute to the emergence and maintenance of family life. In the second project, we will investigate whether sibling relatedness, pathogen pressure and starvation status influence the emergence of cooperative behaviours between siblings and explore to what extend the benefits of sibling cooperation promote the early evolution of family life. The two projects will be carried out using the European earwig, and insect species ideal to explore switches between solitary and family life, because females exhibit non-obligatory forms of care and offspring can both beg for food and feed for themselves. Overall, our projects will test predictions of a novel and major hypothesis stating that good rather than harsh ecological conditions favour switch from solitary to family life, and more generally will provide novel and key insights on the importance of environmental quality and within-group interactions on the early evolution of family life.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France, Switzerland
• Participating Persons: Michel Chapuisat, Ph.D.; Dr. Christophe Lucas
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Joël Meunier, until 1/2016