SFB-TRR 212

A07

Individualised niches and adjustment to human-induced rapid environmental change

Fundamental aims of current research in ecology, evolutionary biology and behavioural ecology are to understand the drivers and predict the limits of species responses to human-induced rapid environmental change. Both behavioural and ecological flexibility were highlighted as important aspects characterising species coping with altered environmental conditions, but these aspects are often studied in separation. Urban environments are characterised by substantial changes of the physical environment and biotic interactions, including a set of ecologically novel aspects, and, hence, provide us with a unique quasi-experimental setting to investigate adaptive processes to human-induced rapid environmental change. The main aim of this project is to illuminate patterns of variation in behaviourally-mediated individualised niches along an urbanisation gradient and test whether variation in niche altering mechanisms explains this variation. We will characterise individualised niches along multiple dimensions, including spatial (via automated VHF-tracking, capture-mark recapture), temporal (via accelerometry), and trophic niches (via stable isotopes analysis) for an ecological generalist rodent species, the yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis). This species is representative for non-commensal small mammals and has successfully colonised cities across Europe. Among- and within-individual variation in key behaviours associated with resource use (boldness, exploration, and activity) will be assessed via repeated standardised behavioural tests. With a common environment and a choice experiment under semi-natural conditions, we will quantify individual variation and differences between rural and urban animals in individualised niches across environmental conditions and the potential for niche choice and niche conformance. A key question is whether higher behavioural flexibility of urban individuals is also reflected in wider individualised niches and higher potential for niche choice or niche conformance? The proposed project builds on extensive previous empirical and conceptual work on individualised niches, urban ecology, and animal personality and will significantly strengthen the CRC by contributing to a better understanding of the interaction of individual phenotypes with their environment and the consequences of these interactions for ecological processes (central goal of CRC). We will directly target the CRC’s central hypothesis and test whether the interaction between the individualised phenotype and the environment results in individualised niches via the niche altering NC³ mechanisms. Further, the project will contribute to testing predictions of all key hypotheses of the second funding phase of the CRC.