ABS 2015: Plenary Sessions
Assoc. Prof. Alison Bell
University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign
Insights into plasticity and individual differences in behavior from stickleback genomic data.
Summary: Over the past 10+ years, genomics has been alternately heralded, hyped and dismissed. Until recently there has not been a sufficient number of studies using genomic tools to address important questions in animal behavior to allow us to assess whether genomics has lived up to its promise. In this talk, I will use examples from studies of behavior in sticklebacks to illustrate the opportunities and challenges associated with applying genomic tools (especially genome-wide expression) to the study of animal behavior. In particular, I will highlight insights we have gained into the causes of individual differences in behavior and limited plasticity from measuring brain gene expression. Some of the main findings include: (1) pleiotropy is rampant; (2) the molecular correlates of individual variation can be different from the molecular correlates of plasticity; (3) the way fathers behave toward their offspring can be an important source of epigenetic variation with consequences for offspring.
Prof. Bennett Galef
McMaster University
ABS Distinguished Animal Behaviorist
Social influences on food choice: behavior, neuroscience and molecular biology.
Summary: What has kept me interested in the social transmission of food preference (STFP) for more than 40 years is how accommodating the phenomenon has become to different levels of analysis. I plan to describe some of the many behavioral sensory, physiological and molecular studies of STFP carried out both in my laboratory and those of many others in response to three of Tinbergen's four questions about behavior.
Prof. Susan Alberts
Duke University
Advantage and adversity: the influence of social environments on fitness in social mammals.
Summary: How does an organism's social and ecological environment affect its fertility and survival? These are major questions that cross the disciplines of animal behavior, biodemography, and medicine. To gain insight into these questions, we are taking advantage of longitudinal data from a well-studied wild primate population, the baboons of the Amboseli basin in southern Kenya. This population, one of the best-studied wild mammal populations in the world, has been under continuous observation since 1971, and represents a robust natural population that experiences extensive natural variation in the social and ecological environment. We have investigated the effects of early life adversity (both social adversity and ecological adversity) on fertility and survival, and we have also investigated the effects of the adult social and ecological environment on fertility and survival. Our data indicate that early adversity carries lifelong costs for both fertility and survival in these primates, and that the adult environment offers some opportunities for these costs to be mitigated.
Prof. Regina Macedo
University of Brasilia
ABS President
Animal behavior: Time travel through science.
Summary: The role of science in today´s world cannot be emphasized strongly enough. In a planet where societies effectively exist in different time periods, conflict seems unavoidable. In this talk, I will explore how research, specifically that developed by us as behaviorists and members of ABS, has contributed toward accelerating global progress in science. These efforts can effectively decrease the knowledge and cultural gaps and lead to greater understanding and development.
ABS 2015: SYMPOSIA
Peter Marler Memorial Symposium
Organizers: Michael Beecher, William Searcy, & Robert Seyfarth
New Frontiers for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior
Organizers: Dustin Rubenstein & Hans Hofmann
It’s About Time: Understanding Temporal Variation in Behavior
Organizer: Andy Dosmann
Polar Marine Mammals and Climate Change
Organizer: Deborah Boege-Tobin