Details of Award
NERC Reference : NER/A/S/2003/00469
The Evolution of Learning - Bumblebees as a model.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor L Chittka, Queen Mary University of London, Sch of Biological and Chemical Sciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor N Raine, University of Guelph, School of Environmental Sciences
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Terrestrial
- ENRIs:
- None
- Science Topics:
- Conservation Ecology
- Behavioural Ecology
- Abstract:
- One of the most intriguing aspects of animal diversity is the tremendous variation of cognitive ability. For example, food storing birds can memorise the locations of hundreds of caches, pigeons memorise maps of their environment based on scents, and bees can count landmarks and categorise flower types according to similarity. Has this diversity arisen because cognition in each species has been fine-tuned during evolution to match its particular ecological needs? The only direct way to show that a cognitive trait is adaptive, is to show empirically that this trait confers greater biological fitness upon its bearers, compared with conspecific animals lacking the trait, or which bear it in a version that deviates from the common wild-type. To do this effectively, we must quantify fitness under biologically realistic conditions, not in artificial laboratory settings. To the best of our knowledge, such a study has not yet been undertaken. Here we focus on a flower learning task in bumblebees, using a simple cognitive trait, learning speed, that is easy to test for large numbers of individuals. We will quantify the raw material for evolution, interindividual variance of learning speed, in a variety of populations of different sizes. We will focus especially on island populations, since we have preliminary evidence that some Mediterranean island bees learn faster and forage more efficiently than mainland bees. These island bees appear to be displacing mainland bees, following their recent introduction by commercial bumblebee breeders. We aim to select bumblebees with either rapid or poor learning speed over several generations, to test the heritability of this trait. We plan to determine, quantitatively, the fitness consequences of learning speed, by placing bee colonies into undisturbed natural habitats, and measuring numbers of sexual offspring in colonies that vary in learning ability. Bumblebees offer a unique combination of advantages: they do not satiate in reppetitive learning tests (because they forage for the colony); we can raise several generations per annum and thus perform heritability estimates; and we can measure natural selection in nature. These results will allow us, for the first time, to determine the strength of selection on learning in the wild.
- NERC Reference:
- NER/A/S/2003/00469
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grants Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £332,520
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - T&S | Total - Staff | Total - Other Costs | Total - Equipment | Total - Indirect Costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £15,657 | £198,082 | £16,665 | £11,000 | £91,119 |
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