Publication
The role of individuality in collective group movement
Publisher:
The Royal Society
Date:
07-02-2013
DOI:
10.1098/RSPB.2012.2564
Abstract: How different levels of biological organization interact to shape each other's function is a central question in biology. One particularly important topic in this context is how in iduals' variation in behaviour shapes group-level characteristics. We investigated how fish that express different locomotory behaviour in an asocial context move collectively when in groups. First, we established that in idual fish have characteristic, repeatable locomotion behaviours (i.e. median speeds, variance in speeds and median turning speeds) when tested on their own. When tested in groups of two, four or eight fish, we found in iduals partly maintained their asocial median speed and median turning speed preferences, while their variance in speed preference was lost. The strength of this in iduality decreased as group size increased, with in iduals conforming to the speed of the group, while also decreasing the variability in their own speed. Further, in iduals adopted movement characteristics that were dependent on what group size they were in. This study therefore shows the influence of social context on in idual behaviour. If the results found here can be generalized across species and contexts, then although in iduality is not entirely lost in groups, social conformity and group-size-dependent effects drive how in iduals will adjust their behaviour in groups.