Coping Behaviour as an Adaptation to Stress: Post-Disturbance Preening in Colonial Seabirds

In humans, coping behaviour is an action taken to soothe oneself during or after a stressful or threatening situation. Some human behaviours with physiological functions also serve as coping behaviours, for example, comfort sucking in infants and comfort eating in adults. In birds, the behaviour of preening, which has important physiological functions, has been postulated to soothe individuals after stressful situations. We combine two existing modelling approaches – logistic regression and Darwinian dynamics – to explore theoretically how a behaviour with crucial physiological function might evolve into a coping behaviour. We apply the method to preening in colonial seabirds to investigate whether and how preening might be co-opted as a coping behaviour in the presence of predators. We conduct an in-depth study of the environmental correlates of preening in a large gull colony in Washington, USA, and we perform an independent field test for comfort preening by computing the change in frequency of preening in gulls that were alerted to a predator, but did not flee

Egg Cannibalism in a Gull Colony Increases with Sea Surface Temperature

Cannibalism occurs regularly across a broad range of taxa with a variety of ecological and evolutionary consequences. Rises in sea surface temperature (SST) have been linked to increased cannibalism in some species, including polar bears (Ursus maritimus), Peruvian anchovy (Engraulis ringens), and Peruvian hake (Merluccius gayi peruanus), and might be expected in birds that depend on marine food webs for sustenance. Increased SSTs are associated with lowered ocean thermoclines and weakened upwellings. These changes, in turn, lead to decreased productivity in surface water and movement of surviving forage fish to deeper water, thereby food-stressing surface feeders such as gulls, diminishing energy intake and lengthening foraging bouts. While controlling for a suite of other environmental factors, we tested whether egg cannibalism and hatching success were independent of rises in local SST at a colony of Glaucous-winged Gulls (Larus glaucescens) and Glaucous-winged3Western Gull (L. glaucescens3occidentalis) hybrids during 2006–2011 on Protection Island, Washington, USA. Cannibalism increased and hatching success decreased with rises in SST. It is unclear if rises in SST impact overall population trends. Gulls are multiyear breeders; if they experience reproductive failure during one or several El Ni ˜ no-Southern Oscillation–related events, they typically have other opportunities to breed. With rising SSTs associated with climate change, however, increasing levels of cannibalism could lead to declining populations in the absence of compensatory adaptive modifications or range shifts

Drop-in help session: ACE

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Trauma and Math

The widespread experience of pandemic trauma created an urgency for our department to grow in the area of trauma-informed teaching and mentoring. I will describe the first steps in our journey together in deepening our understanding of this dimension of interactions with students. We are grateful to Ingrid Slikkers, MSW and Dr. Charity Garcia for sharing their expertise with us

P-14 Using Item Analysis to Identify Common Algebra Misconceptions

This research study was conducted with the goal of identifying which mathematical misconceptions are most commonly observed in student work on the last two exams of the remedial math curriculum at Andrews University. In the first phase, we sorted and scanned all the exams saved for about 15 years, then selected a random sample. Our random sample consisted of 600 “Linear” exams and 600 “Non-linear” exams. The second phase of the research consisted of data collection and analysis. In order to collect the data, we designed a framework that identified the question types on the exams and the corresponding question numbers on different exam versions. The data collection started with tallying incorrect exam responses and recording these by frequency. We then chose some questions to analyze in more detail and recorded these within the designated framework. The final analysis identified the prevalent mathematical misconceptions

G-1 Hot and Bothered I: Climate Change, Cannibalism, and Ovulation Synchrony

Climate change brings with it a variety of unexpected consequences. El Niño-Southern Oscillation episodes mimic conditions of a warming climate except on a shorter timescale. We found that marine gulls nesting in the Pacific Northwest cannibalize significantly more of their neighbors’ eggs during El Niño events than during other times. El Niño events are associated with higher sea surface temperatures which, in turn, depress marine food webs and reduce the amount of food available to gulls and other marine birds and mammals. Despite the risk of attack from parent birds, an egg cannibal can obtain half its daily energy requirement simply by stealing and eating one of its neighbor’s eggs. Consequently, cannibalism is more common when sea surface temperatures rise. But female gulls seem to have developed a surprising adaptation to reduce the chance that one of their eggs will be cannibalized. This adaptation is the topic of the next talk, “Hot and Bothered II: Climate Change, Cannibalism, and Ovulation Synchrony”, by Shandelle Henson

G-3 Hot and Bothered III: Climate Change, Cannibalism, and Ovulation Synchrony

The previous two talks discussed the implications of a finding that increased sea surface temperatures are associated with a higher rate of egg cannibalism in seabird colonies. This is very interesting—if it is true. How did we conclude that sea surface temperatures is a relatively important variable in predicting the rate of egg cannibalism? Do gulls learn formulas in order to know how to behave? Why should biologists learn about an information-theoretic approach to data analysis (as opposed to null-hypothesis testing)? We will discuss these questions at an introductory level