Cooperative Societies Are Consistently Fit

Scientists from Taiwan and the US have found that cooperation leads to consistently high breeding success in beetles.

AsianScientist (Jun 10, 2014) – A team of scientists from Academia Sinica in Taiwan and Columbia University in the US has discovered that cooperative groups of burying beetles (Nicrophorus nepalensis) achieve higher breeding success across a range of temperatures, hinting at possible predictions about the ways animal societies and humans adapt to climate change.

Many scientists believe that humans and social insects dominate the earth because of their ability to form cooperative societies. Our ancestors learned to cope with a range of different environments by cooperating with each other – effectively becoming generalists. However, testing the idea that cooperation allows animals to become generalists capable of surviving across a range of surroundings – an idea known as the “social conquest hypothesis” – is difficult.

The research team examined the ecological consequences of social cooperation among Nicrophorus nepalensis by quantifying the fitness of cooperative and non-cooperative groups at different elevations and temperatures. Feeding their larvae dead animals, the beetles either fight each other to ensure that their own young get exclusive access to the food source, or work together in burying the food to prevent flies and other competitors from discovering it. In addition, at higher elevations temperatures were lower but fewer flies were present, whereas lower elevations had higher temperatures but more flies.

The research, which was published in eLife, revealed that cooperative groups of beetles performed as thermal generalists with similarly high breeding success at all temperatures and elevations, whereas non-cooperative groups yielded higher breeding success only at intermediate temperatures and elevations.

“This study provides the first experimental evidence consistent with the social conquest hypothesis,” wrote the authors. “Ultimately, studying the ecological consequences of cooperation may not only help us to understand why so many species of social insects have conquered the earth, but also to determine how climate change will affect the success of these and other social species, including our own.”

The article can be found at: Sun et al. (2014) Climate-mediated cooperation promotes niche expansion in burying beetles.

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Source: Academia Sinica; Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie/CC/Flickr.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

Alan Aw is a maths enthusiast who likes sharing the fun and beauty of science with others. Besides reading, he enjoys running, badminton, and listening to (and occasionally playing) Bach or Zez Confrey.

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