Flexibility training does not increase behavioral diversity of Florida scrub-jays

Human modifications of environments are expanding, causing global changes that other species must adjust to or suffer from. Behavioral flexibility (hereafter 'flexibility') could be key to coping with rapid change. Behavioral research can contribute to conservation by determining which behaviors can predict the ability to adjust to human modified environments and whether these can be manipulated. When research that manipulates behavior in a conservation context occurs, it primarily trains a specific behavior to address one potential threat improve individual success in the wild. However, training a domain general cognitive ability, such as flexibility, has the potential to change a whole suite of behaviors, which could have a larger impact on influencing success in adjusting to human modified environments. This project asks whether flexibility can be increased by experimentally increasing environmental heterogeneity and whether such an increase can help species succeed in human modified environments. We explore whether it is possible to take insights from highly divergent species and apply them to address critical conservation challenges. This pushes the limits in terms of understanding how conserved these abilities may be and to what extent they can be shaped by the environment. We aim to 1) conduct flexibility interventions in flexible species that are successful in human modified environments (California scrub-jays or blue jays) to understand how flexibility relates to success; and 2) implement these interventions in a vulnerable species (Florida scrub-jays) to determine whether flexibility as a generalizable cognitive ability can be trained and whether such training improves success in human-modified environments. This research will significantly advance our understanding of the causes and consequences of flexibility, linking behavior to environmental change, cognition, and success in human modified environments through a comparative framework.

人类对环境的改造活动正不断扩张，由此引发的全球性环境变化迫使其他物种要么做出适应性调整，要么承受生存危机。行为灵活性（Behavioral flexibility，下文简称“灵活性”）或许是应对快速环境变化的关键所在。行为学研究可助力生物保护：通过明确哪些行为可作为物种适应人工改造环境（human-modified environments）的能力的预测指标，以及这些行为是否可被人为干预调控。在生物保护场景下开展的行为干预类研究，目前主要聚焦于训练特定行为以应对某一类潜在生存威胁，并提升个体在野外的生存成功率。然而，训练如灵活性这类领域一般性认知能力（domain-general cognitive ability），则有可能重塑物种的整套行为模式，这对提升物种在人工改造环境中的生存成功率或能产生更为深远的影响。本研究旨在探明两个核心问题：一是能否通过实验性提升环境异质性（environmental heterogeneity）来增强物种的灵活性，二是这种环境异质性的提升能否助力物种在人工改造环境中成功存续。本研究还将探索：能否从演化高度分化的物种中获取研究洞见，并将其应用于解决重大生物保护难题。这一研究思路将拓展我们对这类认知能力的演化保守性及其受环境塑造程度的认知边界。我们的研究目标分为两点：其一，在已成功适应人工改造环境的灵活性物种——加州灌丛鸦（California scrub-jays）与冠蓝鸦（blue jays）——中开展灵活性干预实验，以厘清灵活性与物种生存成功之间的关联；其二，在脆弱濒危物种佛罗里达灌丛鸦（Florida scrub-jays）中实施此类干预实验，以验证作为可泛化认知能力的灵活性是否可被训练，以及此类训练能否提升该物种在人工改造环境中的生存成功率。本研究将极大深化我们对灵活性的成因与影响的认知，并通过比较研究框架，将行为、环境变化、认知能力以及物种在人工改造环境中的生存成功率这几者有机联系起来。