Synthesis Action FLEXIMAL

Cognitive Buffer and Maladaptation in long-lived animals

Overview

Maladaptation caused by anthropogenic pressures is a major driver of population declines and extinctions, and understanding how some organisms deal with it is one of the major scientific challenges of our time. While the causes and consequences of maladaptation has long been a focus in ecology, the mechanisms by which organisms overcome maladaptive situations are little understood. This is especially true for animals with long generation times, which exhibit small populations and slow evolutionary responses. Yet some of these animals have achieved remarkable success in one of the most heavily human-modified ecosystems on Earth. Unravelling how long-lived animals navigate maladaptive landscapes holds substantial promise to refine our current understanding of biodiversity resilience in the Anthropocene.

Objectives

The main objective of this Synthesis Action is to recognize the pivotal role of cognition in buffering long-lived animals against environmental challenges, a theory known as ‘cognitive buffer hypothesis'. Despite broad recognition of cognition as a source of behavioural plasticity that can shape environmental pressures, most current theoretical and empirical research on animals’ responses to anthropogenic pressures continue to treat animals as passive agents of external conditions. Thus, there remains an urgent need to incorporate cognition more formally into maladaptation research. We argue that this knowledge gap stems from a long-standing divide between neurobiologists and cognitive scientists, who study the causes of behavioural variation, and ecologists and evolutionary biologists, who examine its consequences. By bringing together specialists across these domains, the FLEXIMAL Synthesis Action will tackle this gap and explore how cognition may serve as a key mechanism to buffer populations against maladaptation.

Schedule

Day 1 - Conceptual framework: How can cognition buffer maladaptation?

09:00 - 09:30: Welcome, objectives and introduction to the scientific problem
09:30 - 10:30: What do we mean by cognitive buffering? Definitions and conceptual boundaries: maladaptation, cognition, decision-making, plasticity, buffering, …
10:30 - 11:00: Coffee break
11:00 - 13:00: Plenary discussion: agree on definitions and identify the main components of the conceptual framework
13:00 - 15:00: Lunch
15:00 - 16:00: How could cognition buffer maladaptation? Build the causal pathway from environmental challenge to behavioural response, fitness and demography
16:00 - 17:00: Plenary synthesis: build one common conceptual framework

Day 1 output: Table of definitions + scheme of the conceptual framework.

Day 2 - Evidence, gaps and future directions

09:00 - 09:20: Recap of the conceptual framework
09:20 - 10:45: What evidence supports the proposed causal pathway? Where is it weak?
10:45 - 11:15: Coffee break
11:15 - 13:00: Plenary discussion: evaluate evidence and identify the major missing links
13:00 - 14:00: Lunch
14:00 - 16:00: How can we fill the major gaps? Individual, population and macroecological approaches, using urbanisation as a model system
16:00 - 17:00: Plenary discussion: connect priority gaps to feasible approaches

Day 2 output: evidence/gap map + table connecting priority gaps with possible approaches.

Day 3 - Integration and research agenda

09:00 - 09:30: What have we learned over the first two days? Define sections of the manuscript. Plenary
09:30 - 10:45: Start writing: Split in groups to delineate the contents of each section and start writing. 3 groups × 3
10:45 - 11:15: Coffee break
11:15 - 13:00: Continue writing: Split in groups to delineate the contents of each section and start writing. 3 groups × 3
13:00 - 14:00: Lunch
14:00 - 16:00: Continue writing: Split in groups to delineate the contents of each section and start writing. 3 groups × 3
16:00 - 17:00: Final synthesis: mechanisms → consequences → evidence → critical gaps → future tests Plenary
17:00 - 18:00: Outputs, next steps, responsibilities and closing Plenary