Data from: Individual variation and selection for phenotypic plasticity of laying date and clutch size across different environmental conditions in Tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)
Data files
Mar 28, 2025 version files 9.30 MB
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Female_2005_2021.csv
228.53 KB
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README.md
2.66 KB
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Temperature_2005-2021.csv
6.21 MB
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Temperature_by_farm_2005-2021.csv
2.86 MB
Abstract
Several studies have emphasized that phenotypic plasticity should be a key mechanism to cope with current rapid environmental changes by allowing individuals to quickly express new adaptive phenotypes. Yet, few studies have investigated the evolutionary potential of plasticity for multiple traits simultaneously and using several different environmental variables. Here, we assess the extent of variation in, and the selection acting on phenotypic plasticity of key ecological traits, laying date and clutch size, using five environmental variables, in a Tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) population monitored since 2004. While we found some variation among females in their mean laying date and plasticity, we found evidence of selection acting only on mean laying date. We found no variation among females in mean clutch size or plasticity, such that we could not assess selection acting on either. Our results suggest that the evolutionary potential of plasticity in the population under study is limited, especially for clutch size. More studies investigating plasticity in wild populations and incorporating multiple traits and environmental variables are needed to understand future responses of animal populations to environmental changes.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vq83bk440
Description of the data and file structure
Files and variables
File: Female_2005_2021.csv
Description: Data specific to each female individual.
Variables
- idclutch: clutch id
- id: combination of #farm and #nest box
- farm: #farm
- nestbox: #nest box
- year: year of the observation
- clutch_size: number of eggs laid
- nfledgling: number of fledglings
- pred_pot: presence of signs of predation (presence or absence)
- laying_date: laying date of the first egg of the clutch (ordinal date)
- idF1: ID of the female
- age_morpho_indic: morphological age (SY=0 or ASY=1)
- mass: mass (g)
- breeder_density: number of nest boxes occupied by tree swallow on the farm
- hosp_density: number of nest boxes occupied by house sparrow on the same farm
- extensive_landscape: proportion of the landscape arround the nest box corresponding to extensive landscape
File: Temperature_2005-2021.csv
Description: Temperature data for all weather stations used from 2005 to 2021. This is the raw data we collected from the Environment Canada website (http://weather.gc.ca/).
Variables
- lon: longitude (decimal format)
- lat: latitude (decimal format)
- station: name of the meteorological station
- id_clim: ID of the meteorological station
- date: date (year-month-day)
- year: year
- month: month
- day: day of the month
- julianday: ordinal date
- temp_max: maximum temperature recorded that day (°C)
- temp_min: minimum temperature recorded that day (°C)
- temp_mean: mean temperature recorded that day (maximum temperature - minimum temperature)(°C)
File: Temperature_by_farm_2005-2021.csv
Description: Temperature data once the farms were associated with one or more stations (depending on the presence of missing data or not). This dataset contains temperatures for the months of March, April, and May. It is the one we used for the sliding window analysis.
Variables
- farm: #farm
- year: year
- month: month
- day: day of the month
- station: name of the meteorological station
- temp_min: minimum temperature recorded that day at that station (°C)
- temp_max: maximum temperature recorded that day at that station (°C)
- temp_mean: mean temperature recorded that day at that station (maximum temperature - minimum temperature)(°C)
- date: date (year-month-day)