Cultural Evolution in Rufous-And-White Wrens (Thryophilus Rufalbus): Insights from Acoustic and Genetic Analyses

University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 2016 Cultural evolution in Rufous-and-white Wrens (Thryophilus rufalbus): Insights from acoustic and genetic analyses Brendan Graham University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Graham, Brendan, "Cultural evolution in Rufous-and-white Wrens (Thryophilus rufalbus): Insights from acoustic and genetic analyses" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5907. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/5907 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). 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CULTURAL EVOLUTION IN RUFOUS-AND-WHITE WRENS (THRYOPHILUS RUFALBUS): INSIGHTS FROM ACOUSTIC AND GENETIC ANALYSES by Brendan Alan Graham A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies Through the Department of Biological Sciences In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2016 © Brendan Alan Graham 2016 Cultural evolution in Rufous-and-white Wrens (Thryophilus rufalbus): Insights from acoustic and genetic analyses by Brendan Alan Graham APPROVED BY: __________________________________________________ Stephen Lougheed, External Examiner Biology Department, Queen’s University __________________________________________________ Daniel Heath, External Department Reader Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor __________________________________________________ Oliver Love, Internal Department Reader Department of Biological Sciences, University of Windsor __________________________________________________ Stéphanie Doucet, Internal Department Reader Department of Biological Sciences, University of Windsor __________________________________________________ Daniel Mennill, Advisor Department of Biological Sciences, University of Windsor December 12th, 2016 Declaration of Co-Authorship / Previous Publication I. Co-Authorship Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis incorporates material that is result of joint research, as follows: I am the sole author of the General Introduction (Chapter 1) and the General Discussion (Chapter 7). I am the principle author of Chapters 2 through Chapter 6. All five of these chapters are co-authored by my supervisor, Dr. Daniel Mennill. Chapters 3 through 6 are co-authored by our collaborator Dr. Daniel Heath, Chapters 3 through 5 are co-authored by Dr. Ryan Walter, Chapter 2 is co-authored by Dr. Torben Dabelsteen and Dr. Luis Sandoval, and Chapter 3 is co-authored by Dr. Melissa Mark. In all five instances the key ideas are mine, and the experimental design, experimental execution, data analysis, interpretation, and writing were performed primarily by me. Dr. Daniel Mennill contributed to experimental design, data analysis, interpretation, and the writing and editing of the manuscripts, as well as providing financial and logistical assistance for the research described in all five data chapters. My other coauthors contributed to the experimental design, data collection, data interpretation, and/or editing and writing of the manuscripts. I am aware of the University of Windsor Senate Policy on Authorship and I certify that I have properly acknowledged the contribution of other researchers to my thesis, and have obtained written permission from each of the co-author(s) to include the above material(s) in my thesis. I certify that, with the above qualification, this thesis, and the research to which it refers, is the product of my own work. Chapter 2 is published in the journal Bioacoustics. Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 are written in manuscript format for future submission to scientific journals. iii II. Declaration of Previous Publication This thesis includes one original paper that has been previously published in a peer-reviewed journal, as follows: Thesis Chapter Publication title/full citation Publication status* Chapter 2 A test of the Acoustic Adaptation Hypothesis in Published in three types of tropical forest: degradation of male Bioacoustics and female Rufous-and-white Wren songs I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include the above published material(s) in my thesis. I certify that the above material describes work completed during my registration as graduate student at the University of Windsor. I declare that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. Furthermore, to the extent that I have included copyrighted material that surpasses the bounds of fair dealing within the meaning of the Canada Copyright Act, I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include such material(s) in my thesis. I declare that this is a true copy of my thesis, including any final revisions, as approved by my thesis committee and the Graduate Studies office, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. iv Abstract Acoustic signals play an important role in the evolutionary process. Studying variation in acoustic signals and the evolutionary forces that act on acoustic evolution will help to clarify the role that acoustic divergence plays during speciation. The acoustic signals of birds have been well studied, although most historical research has focused on the acoustic traits of males living at temperate latitudes. Recent work shows that female song is more common than previously thought, particularly in the tropics, and that female song is the ancestral trait in birds. Therefore further research on the acoustic traits of females is necessary to examine the evolutionary significance of animal vocal signals. In this dissertation I compare patterns of cultural evolution in male and female Rufous-and-white Wrens, and I examine the evolutionary forces that act on male and female acoustic signals. To achieve this goal, I combine acoustic and genetic analysis to quantify genetic differentiation, migration, and dispersal patterns and determine the role that these factors have on acoustic variation. In addition I incorporate ecological data and use a sound transmission experiment to explore the effect that ecological variation has on acoustic evolution. My results indicate that males and females exhibit similar patterns of acoustic variation, suggesting that similar evolutionary processes act on both male and female songs. Specifically, acoustic differences between populations appear to arise due to cultural drift or cultural selection, as opposed to genetic variation and ecological selection, as has been shown in other species. Males and females also show cultural differences, including lower song-sharing rates by females, greater inter-annual variation in the acoustic structure of female songs, and sound transmission differences. These patterns indicate that there may be sex-based differences in selection pressures acting on songs. Additionally, my results show that dispersal is female-biased in Rufous-and-white Wrens and therefore cultural differences between sexes may arise as a result of dispersal differences between the sexes. v Collectively, my results provide further insight into the acoustic variation of male and female birds, and expand our knowledge of female song and the vocalizations of tropical animals. vi Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Dan Mennill for all of his guidance, enthusiasm, and financial support throughout the last five years. I am extremely grateful for everything I have learned from him over the past five years, and for the opportunity to work in Costa Rica over the last five years. Next I would like to thank my supervisory committee Dr. Daniel Heath, Dr. Oliver Love, and Dr. Stéphanie Doucet for all of their help with my work. In particular I would like to thank Dr. Daniel Heath for all of his help with my molecular work and for providing me with the lab space and equipment to complete all of my work. I would also like to thank Dr. Stephen Lougheed for taking the time to serve as my external examiner for my defense. I would like to thank my collaborators Luis Sandoval, Dr. Torben Dablesteen, Dr. Melissa Mark, and Dr. Ryan Walter for all their help with my research. Their assistance and expertise helped to improve the quality of my research. Additionally I would like to thank Dave Wilson, Pierre-Paul Bitton, Kristin Kovach, Matt Battiston, Christopher Moser-Purdy, and Alex Harris for all of their help on

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