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Data from: Individuals’ expected genetic contributions to future generations, reproductive value, and short-term metrics of fitness in free-living song sparrows (Melospiza melodia)

Cite this dataset

Reid, Jane M. et al. (2020). Data from: Individuals’ expected genetic contributions to future generations, reproductive value, and short-term metrics of fitness in free-living song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cf388r6

Abstract

Appropriately defining and enumerating ‘fitness’ is fundamental to explaining and predicting evolutionary dynamics. Yet, general theoretical concepts of fitness are often hard to translate into quantities that can be measured in wild populations experiencing complex environmental, demographic, genetic and selective variation. While the ‘fittest’ entities might be widely understood to be those that ultimately leave most descendants at some future time, such long-term legacies can rarely be measured, impeding evaluation of the degree to which tractable short-term metrics of individual fitness could potentially serve as useful direct proxies. One opportunity for conceptual and empirical convergence stems from the principle of individual reproductive value (Vi), defined as the number of copies of each of an individual’s alleles that is expected to be present in future generations given the individual’s realised pedigree of descendants. Since Vi tightly predicts an individual’s longer-term genetic contribution, quantifying Vi provides a tractable route to quantifying what, to date, has been an abstract theoretical fitness concept. We used complete pedigree data from free-living song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) to demonstrate that individuals’ expected genetic contributions stabilise within an observed 20-year (i.e. ~8 generation) time period, allowing estimation of individual Vi. Considerable among-individual variation in Vi was evident in both sexes. Standard metrics of individual lifetime fitness, comprising lifespan, lifetime reproductive success and projected growth rate, typically explained less than half the variation. We thereby elucidate the degree to which fitness metrics observed on individuals concur with measures of longer-term genetic contributions, and consider the degree to which analyses of pedigree structure could provide useful complementary insights into evolutionary outcomes.

Usage notes

Location

Canada
British Columbia