Presentation Details
Effects of Turbidity on Social Activity in a Group-Living Fish

Ian M Hamilton, Mila Collette.

The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

Abstract


An individual’s ability to gather social information is influenced by the properties of its sensory environment. In the cooperatively-breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher, many displays involved in cooperation, conflict, and dominance relationships are visual. Therefore, the efficacy of these might be affected by changes in turbidity, which affects light levels and water clarity. Based on previous laboratory studies in this system, we predicted that increased turbidity would be associated with lower activity levels and fewer social interactions. To test this, we explored the effects of natural variation in turbidity on intra-group behavioral interactions in the field. We found that interaction frequency was highest at intermediate levels of turbidity for dominant female and subordinate group members and that interaction frequency at high and low turbidity did not differ from one another. For dominant males, interaction frequency increased at the highest level of turbidity. These results suggest that changes in turbidity can influence within-group conflict which could impact dominance structure and group stability.

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