Selection for territory acquisition is modulated by social network structure in a wild songbird.

ABSTRACT: The social environment may be a key mediator of selection that operates on animals. In many cases, individuals may experience selection not only as a function of their phenotype, but also as a function of the interaction between their phenotype and the phenotypes of the conspecifics they associate with. For example, when animals settle after dispersal, individuals may benefit from arriving early, but, in many cases, these benefits will be affected by the arrival times of other individuals in their local environment. We integrated a recently described method for calculating assortativity on weighted networks, which is the correlation between an individual's phenotype and that of its associates, into an existing framework for measuring the magnitude of social selection operating on phenotype

SUBMITTER: Farine DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4406129 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature