Rapid and repeated divergence of animal chemical signals in an island introduction experiment

Studies of animal communication have documented myriad rapid, context-dependent changes in visual and acoustic signal design. In contrast, relatively little is known about the capacity of vertebrate chemical signals to rapidly respond, either plastically or deterministically, to changes in context.
Four years following an experimental introduction of lizards to replicate experimental islets, we aimed to determine if chemical signal design of the experimental populations differed from that of the source population.
In 2014, we translocated Podarcis erhardii lizards from a large, predator-rich island to each of five replicate predator-free islets. Mean population densities increased five-fold over the following four years and bite scars suggest significantly more intraspecific fighting among these experimental populations. In 2018 we analyzed the chemical signal design of males in each of the experimental populations and compared it to the chemical signals of the source population....

动物通讯领域的研究已证实，视觉与声学信号的设计会随情境发生诸多快速变化。与之相对，学界对于脊椎动物化学信号能否以可塑性或确定性方式快速响应情境变化的认知仍较为匮乏。
在通过实验将蜥蜴引入平行实验小岛四年后，我们旨在探明实验种群的化学信号设计是否与源种群存在差异。
2014年，我们将埃尔哈德壁蜥（Podarcis erhardii）从一处捕食者密集的大岛，移殖至五个平行无捕食者实验小岛中。后续四年间，种群平均密度增长了五倍；咬痕证据显示，这些实验种群内部的种内争斗行为显著增多。2018年，我们对各实验种群雄性个体的化学信号特征进行了分析，并与源种群的化学信号进行了对比……