title: The role of social and ecological processes in structuring animal populations: a case study from automated tracking of wild birds.
abstract: Both social and ecological factors influence population process and structure, with resultant consequences for phenotypic selection on individuals. Understanding the scale and relative contribution of these two factors is thus a central aim in evolutionary ecology. In this study, we develop a framework using null models to identify the social and spatial patterns that contribute to phenotypic structure in a wild population of songbirds. We used automated technologies to track 1053 individuals that formed 73 737 groups from which we inferred a social network. Our framework identified that both social and spatial drivers contributed to assortment in the network. In particular, groups had a more even sex ratio than expected and exhibited a consistent age structure that suggested local association preferences, such as preferential attachment or avoidance. By contrast, recent immigrants were spatially partitioned from locally born individuals, suggesting differential dispersal strategies by phenotype. Our results highlight how different scales of social decision-making, ranging from post-natal dispersal settlement to fission-fusion dynamics, can interact to drive phenotypic structure in animal populations.
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK ; Department of Anthropology (Evolution Wing) , University of California , Davis, CA 95616, USA ; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute , Ancon, Panama.
authors.forename: Damien R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Farine
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Josh A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Firth
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK ; Research School of Biology , Australian National University , Acton 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Lucy M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Aplin
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Ross A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Crates
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Antica
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Culina
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Colin J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Garroway
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK ; Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Animal Sciences , Wageningen University , Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Camilla A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hinde
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Lindall R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Kidd
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Nicole D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Milligan
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK ; Pattern Analysis and Machine Learning Research Group , University of Oxford , Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Psorakis
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Reinder
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Radersma
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Brecht
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Verhelst
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Voelkl
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Ben C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Sheldon
keywords: dispersal; great tit; group living; immigration; paridae; social organization