Environmental diversity constrains learning in Drosophila melanogaster

1. Much is known about how enriched environmental diversity affects ability to learn across the months and years that are the developmental periods of large animals. 2. Less is known about how diversity impacts learning across the minutes and hours during which sensory environments of small foraging...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEcological entomology Vol. 42; no. 6; pp. 697 - 703
Main Authors TOSH, COLIN R., BROGAN, BARRY
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2017
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects
Animals
Associative learning
Biodiversity
Drosophila
Drosophila melanogaster
Environmental impact
flower constancy
Forage
Insects
Learning
mixed crop
Odor
Odors
Pollinators
proactive interference
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Summary:1. Much is known about how enriched environmental diversity affects ability to learn across the months and years that are the developmental periods of large animals. 2. Less is known about how diversity impacts learning across the minutes and hours during which sensory environments of small foraging animals such as insects may vary dramatically. 3. This study shows that Drosophila melanogaster exposed to a diversity of odour–taste associations over a few minutes subsequently learn standard associative learning tasks poorly. 4. This effect is robust to variation in odours used in all parts of experiments. 5. Findings may have an impact on at least three major research areas in ecology: the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; the evolution of floral constancy in pollinators; and the pest‐protective effects of mixed species crops. A classic olfactory conditioning protocol for Drosophila is modified to examine the role of environmental diversity on learning in Drosophila melanogaster. Flies presented with a variety of odour–taste associations over a few minutes subsequently learn a standard olfactory–gustatory associative learning task poorly, relative to those exposed to a low diversity of associations. Such an effect could help to explain the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, the evolution of floral constancy in pollinators, and the pest‐protective effects of mixed species crops.
ISSN:0307-6946
1365-2311
DOI:10.1111/een.12435