Project description DEENESFRITPL Studying the paradox of social interaction in animals Social interaction plays a significant role in most evolutionary and ecological changes and actions, including but not restricted to foraging. Social interactions cause the development of thorough individuality in animals, especially concerning their diet and location selection, due to sharing of social information. This factor contradicts the prevalent belief that sociality endorses a lack of individuality in animals, providing us with a paradox. The EU-funded IFSSOC project aims to study this paradox, deducing the effects of sociality and social interaction on animals’ individuality. To achieve this, the project’s research will focus on birds of the Sulidae family which exhibit mostly similar morphologies with geographic diversity. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective Social interactions are fundamental for many ecological and evolutionary processes, including foraging. However, in many animals that use social information, a high degree of individuality in traits such as site and diet selection also exists. This represents an apparent paradox when sociality could potentially reduce individuality. Thus, it is unknown how these two processes interact to shape current and future foraging behaviour. For instance, can some animals become specialised in terms of social information use, or does group foraging erode individuality? This project will determine the interplay between the social and learned components of foraging, and levels of specialisation in habitat use and diet, across of range of seabirds in the Sulidae family (a morphologically constrained but geographically diverse group). State-of-the-art biologgers will be used to collect coupled video and GPS data to quantify the prevalence of group, solitary and commensal foraging in focal taxa representative of tropical and temperate environments, and link strategy to foraging success. State-space models, trained on coupled datasets, will be applied to long-term tracking data from nine Sulid species, to allow a family-scale comparison of specialisation. Through these focused analyses of individual foraging, this research action will enable predictions about the adaptive capabilities of populations to climate change, thus aligning with EU environmental priorities. The current skill set of the experienced researcher, together with a suite of newly acquired skills gained under tutelage of the strong supervisory partnership at host organisations, will make this timely research possible. This global, interdisciplinary project will result in high levels of knowledge exchange, foster international collaboration, and maximise the experienced researcher’s professional development, mobility and career potential, while addressing a fundamental question by combining two fields in bioscience. Fields of science natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyornithologynatural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biologymedical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutritionnatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes Keywords IFSSOC Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2018 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF) Coordinator HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY Net EU contribution € 295 940,16 Address Riccarton EH14 4AS Edinburgh United Kingdom See on map Region Scotland Eastern Scotland Edinburgh Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 Participants (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER Participation ended United Kingdom Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address The queen's drive northcote house EX4 4QJ Exeter See on map Region South West (England) Devon Devon CC Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 Partners (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all Partner Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement. DEAKIN UNIVERSITY Australia Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address 1 gheringhap street 3220 Geelong victoria See on map Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 183 473,28
