Data from: Can recent social evolutionary history promote resilience to environmental change?
Data files
Sep 10, 2024 version files 90.24 KB
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Bladon_et_al_2024_-_Thermal_breeding_data.csv
29.26 KB
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Bladon_et_al_2024_-_Thermal_survival_data.csv
57.56 KB
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README.md
3.43 KB
Abstract
Principles of social evolution have long been used retrospectively to interpret social interactions, but have less commonly been applied predictively to inform conservation and animal husbandry strategies. We investigate whether differences in developmental environment, facilitated by divergent social conditions, can predict resilience to environmental change. Upon exposure to harsh novel environments, populations that previously experienced more benign social environments are predicted either to suffer fitness losses (the “mutation load hypothesis” and “selection filter hypothesis”) or maintain fitness (the “beneficial mutation hypothesis”). We tested these contrasting predictions using populations of burying beetles Nicrophorus vespilloides we had evolved experimentally for 45 generations under contrasting social environments by manipulating the supply of post-hatching parental care. We exposed sexually immature adults from each population to varying heat stress and measured the effect on survival and reproduction. The greater the level of parental care previously experienced by a population, the better its survival under heat stress during sexual maturation. Although this is consistent with the “beneficial mutation hypothesis”, it is also possible that populations that had evolved without post-hatching care were simply more prone to dying during maturation, regardless of their thermal environment. Overall, we suggest that stochastic genetic variation, probably due to founder effects, had a stronger influence on resilience. We discuss the implications for translocation and captive breeding programmes.
README
Can recent evolutionary history promote resilience to environmental change?
Comments and requests should be addressed to Eleanor Bladon: ekr23@cam.ac.uk or eleanor.bladon@gmail.com
Description of the data and file structure
Details of data collection methods for each of the datasets can be found in the manuscript listed above.
"Bladon et al 2024 - Thermal survival data" and "Bladon et al 2024 - Thermal breeding data" contain the following columns:
*ID - The unique identifier given to each breeding pair of beetles
*Block - Experimental block 1 or 2
*Treatment - FCinFC = the adults (the focal individuals in the survival dataset and the parents in the breeding dataset) were from an experimental evolution Full Care population and received full parental care themselves; FCinNC = the parents were from an experimental evolution Full Care population but received no post-hatching parental care themselves; NCinNC = the parents were from an experimental evolution No Care population and received no post-hatching parental care themselves; NCinFC = the parents were from an experimental evolution No Care population but received full parental care themselves
*EvoPop - The experimental evolution population of the adult (the focal individual in the survival dataset and the parents in the breeding dataset)
*EvoCare - The experimental evolution treatment of the population from which the adult was derived (FC = Full Care; NC = No Care)
*JuvCare - The parental care treatment that the adult actually received when they were a larva (FC = Full Care; NC = No Care)
*Temp - The temperature in degrees Celsius that the adult was kept at between eclosion and sexual maturity
*Box - The ID given to the parental pairings within each temperature and care treatment
The "Bladon et al 2024 - Thermal survival data" file also contains the following columns:
*Sex - The sex of the focal beetle
*Survival - Whether the focal beetle was alive or dead at sexual maturity (immediately following their temperature treatment at 14 days after eclosion)
*Status - Survival converted into a binary metric (0 = dead; 1 = alive)
The "Bladon et al 2024 - Thermal breeding data" file also contains the following columns:
*CarcassMass - The mass in grams of the mouse carcass given to parents when they were paired
*EggNo - The number of eggs counted from the underside of the breeding box at 53 h after parental pairing
*Eggs - Whether any eggs were laid (0 = no eggs; 1 = at least one egg)
*LarvaeNo - The number of larvae that hatched
*Larvae - Whether any larvae hatched (0 = no larvae; 1 = at least one larva)
*Sphericity - How spherical the carcass nest was at 53 h (see manuscript for methods and code to calculate sphericity). Note, this was only calculated for a subset of pairs.
*Prop_450_male - The proportion of Micrococcus lysodeikticus cells not degraded by the male's exudate in 1 h (450 nm reading at 60 minutes/450 nm reading at 0 minutes on a BioTek ELx808 microplate reader). Note, this was only measured for a subset of beetles.
*Prop_450_female - The proportion of Micrococcus lysodeikticus cells not degraded by the female's exudate in 1 h (450 nm reading at 60 minutes/450 nm reading at 0 minutes on a BioTek ELx808 microplate reader). Note, this was only measured for a subset of beetles.
Missing data code: NA