Rapid local adaptations through airborne dispersal in spider communities formed on artificial islands

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14597
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Ecology/Environment
• Research Institution: Miyagi University of Education
• Principal Investigator: Hayashi Morito 宮城教育大学, 教員キャリア研究機構, 研究員 (70625037)
• Research Collaborator: BAKKALI Mohammed ; HYDE Alex ; NAGGS Fred ; GOODACRE Sara
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 島嶼 / 分散生態学 / 動物行動学 / 群集生態学 / 進化生態学 / 風媒 / サラグモ / アシナガグモ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Young artificial islands created in Attenborough Nature Reserve is an ideal model system to observe initial conditions of communities and evolution. This research is focused on harnessing the miniature archipelago in combination with spiders’ behavioural experiments aimed at addressing the most profound question of how a population and community are created based on behaviours of individuals.
Rapid evolutionary decreases of dispersal tendencies were found through the experiments measuring behaviours against prevailing wind in which spiders shrink their body to stay on land and release silken anchors to brake on water. These behaviours significantly increase through time, hence from younger to older populations/islands, meaning that spider individuals showing staying motivations have remained and settled gradually in populations on the artificial archipelago. Similar tendencies were also found from other behavioural features such as active levels or aggressiveness.

Free Research Field

進化生態学，遺伝学，群集生態学，分散生態学，ビッグデータ解析，都市生態学，環境教育学