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Data from: Metabolic scope as a proximate constraint on individual behavioral variation: effects on 'personality', plasticity, and predictability

Cite this dataset

Biro, Peter A. et al. (2018). Data from: Metabolic scope as a proximate constraint on individual behavioral variation: effects on 'personality', plasticity, and predictability [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jn33140

Abstract

Behavioral ecologists have hypothesized that among-individual differences in resting metabolic rate (RMR) may predict consistent individual differences in mean values for costly behaviors, or for behaviors that affect energy intake rate. This hypothesis has empirical support and presently attracts considerable attention, but notably it does not provide predictions for individual differences in (a) behavioral plasticity or (b) unexplained variation (residual variation from mean individual behavior, here termed predictability). We outline how consideration of aerobic maximum metabolic rate (MMR) and particularly aerobic scope (= MMR - RMR) can be used to simultaneously make predictions about mean, among- and within-individual variation in behavior. We predict that while RMR should be proportional to an individuals’ mean level of sustained behavioral activity (one aspect of its personality), individuals with greater aerobic scope will also have greater scope to express behavioral plasticity and/or greater unpredictability in behavior (= greater residual variation). As a first step towards testing these predictions, we analyse existing activity data from selectively bred lines of mice that differ in both daily activity and aerobic scope. We find that replicate high-scope mice are more active on average, show greater among-individual variation in activity, greater among-individual variation in plasticity, and greater unpredictability. These data provide some tentative first support for our hypothesis, suggesting that further research on this topic would be valuable.

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