Meeting Abstract
Integration refers to the ability for parts of an organism to work together, often to accomplish a higher-level function. Parts can be defined as covarying performance traits, where integration helps organisms achieve ecologically relevant tasks. Since performance is behavioral, traits or their integration may be able to respond to changing ecological contexts on short time scales, such as capturing alternative prey types. In suction-feeding fishes, integration between approach (locomotor) and capture (feeding) kinematics is broadly supported, but performance in each of these functional systems can also be modulated based on prey evasiveness. Therefore, we ask how modulation of component performance traits to capture evasive and non-evasive prey types affects their integration in bluegill sunfish. As expected, bluegill modulated between relatively slow swimming/high suction force to capture non-evasive prey, and fast swimming/high suction volume to capture evasive prey. Using multivariate partial least squares ordination followed by general linear model regression analyses, we found that reduced integration with evasive prey, likely a factor of gape limitation at fast swim speeds, was driven by individual specialization for relatively evasive/non-integrated and non-evasive/integrated capture strategies, not by flexibility of integration within individuals. Whether specialized performance drives integration, integration constrains the flexibility of performance, or any of these traits may be learned is unclear. Despite this, these results suggest that performance integration is a whole-organism phenotype and selection on integration (if present) acts on individuals rather than behaviors.
