Data from: Assessing the reproductive consequences of mate retention and pair bond duration in Thorn-tailed Rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda), a short-lived, socially monogamous Neotropical bird

Description for "PairingData_Aspinicauda.xlsx" file.

Data from: Assessing the reproductive consequences of mate retention and pair bond duration in Thorn-tailed Rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda), a short-lived, socially monogamous Neotropical bird
MS Reference Number: IBIS-2022-OA-113.R2
Article DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13183

Please address questions to:

Esteban Botero D.
Guest Scientist
Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
Dep. Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics
Eberhard-Gwinner-Str. 8
82319 Seewiesen, Germany
Telephone: +49 8157 932453
http://www.orn.mpg.de/en
e-mail: eboterod@gmail.com; ebotero@orn.mpg.de

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General information:

The whole dataset contains breeding data collected from a population of the furnariid Thorn-tailed rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda) in north-central Chile (Fray Jorge National Park; 30º38’S, 71º40’W). These data were collected during 2009–2017 as part of a long-term study on the breeding biology of rayaditos. In this study, data were used to evaluate the consequences of mate replacement versus mate retention using 243 breeding attempts made by 159 different breeding pairs. This, in the end, allowed to test whether successive remating conferred reproductive benefits to reunited pairs.

The data set is comprised by an Excel file (three spreadsheets) that are explained below.

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Excel file "PairingData_Aspinicauda.xlsx" (created 11-01-2023)

********** Spreadsheet "1. AllPairs" **********
This spreadsheet contains information from all breeding attempts monitored during the study (n = 243). Each row correspond to a unique breeding attempt. The ring number is used as an ID for each individual. The matrix includes information regarding individual and pair identification, age, previous breeding status (whether an individual is a widow or a divorcee), current pairing status (whether is a newly formed pair or a reunited pair), number of seasons breeding together for each pair, confidence on pairing information for each pair (high: there was absolute confidence on the previous breeding status of both members of a breeding pair; low: when information on previous breeding status was missing for at least one of the members of a pair), and measures of reproductive success (laying day, clutch size, umber of fledglings produced). This dataset can be saved as a *.txt file so that it can be imported into R (R Core Team 2020).

The matrix contains the following variables:

VARIABLE        DESCRIPTION

Year        Sampling year.
Box        Nestbox code.
FID        ID for the breeding female.
FMAge        Age for each breeding female (yearling: 1; adult: 2).
SocMID        ID for the breeding male (social father of the clutch).
SocMaAge    Age for each breeding male.
PairID        ID for the breeding pair. This is for indexing purposes.
FPaSta        Previous breeding status of the female (Wid: widow; Div: divorcee; Reu: reunited).
MPaSta        Previous breeding status of the male (Wid: widow; Div: divorcee; Reu: reunited).
PairSta        Pairing status for the focal breeding pair (New: newly formed; Reunited: reunited).
PairSea        No. of seasons breeding together for each pair.
Certainty    Certainty on previous breeding status (High or Low; see explanation above).
LayingD        Laying date (number of days in relation to date of first egg in the population).
ClutchS        Clutch size.
NoFle        Number of fledging produced.

********** Spreadsheet "2. WidowFBre" **********
This spreadsheet contains breeding information for females that were monitored in the years before and after mate loss.

The matrix contains the following variables:

VARIABLE        DESCRIPTION

Year        Sampling year.
Box        Nestbox code.
FID        ID for the breeding female.
LayingD        Laying date during year after mate loss.
ClutchS        Clutch size during year after mate loss.
NoFle        Number of fledging produced during year after mate loss.
FPaSta        Previous breeding status of the female (Wid: widow; Div: divorcee; Reu: reunited).
LayingD_x.1    Laying date during year before mate loss (year x-1).
ClutchS_x.1    Clutch size during year before mate loss (year x-1).
NoFle_x.1    Number of fledging produced during year before mate loss (year x-1).

********** Spreadsheet "3. WidowMBre" **********
This spreadsheet contains breeding information for males that were monitored in the years before and after mate loss.

The matrix contains the following variables:

VARIABLE        DESCRIPTION

Year        Sampling year.
Box        Nestbox code.
SocMID        ID for the breeding male.
LayingD        Laying date during year after mate loss.
NoFle        Number of fledging produced during year after mate loss.
MPaSta        Previous breeding status of the female (Wid: widow; Div: divorcee; Reu: reunited).
LayingD_x.1    Laying date during year before mate loss (year x-1).
NoFle_x.1    Number of fledging produced during year before mate loss (year x-1).

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Methodological information (for more details, please see the related manuscript):

A total of 101–157 nestboxes were installed in Fray Jorge since 2007, and are monitored annually during September–December. We gathered data on reproductive phenology and productivity during 2008–2017 for all nestbox occupants. Nestboxes were initially visited every 3–5 days to detect nest building. Once nestboxes were occupied, we increased the frequency of visits to record data on laying date, clutch size, and the number of hatchlings and fledglings produced (see more details in Botero-Delgadillo et al. 2017). We captured and marked breeding adults and nestlings with numbered aluminium rings when nestlings were 12–14 days old. Additionally, we used mist nets to capture adult birds breeding in natural cavities in our study site. A total of 248 adults (132 females, 116 males) and 730 nestlings were marked. For all nests that were monitored, we marked ~90% of all breeding adults every year.

We used data from a total of 243 breeding attempts made by 159 breeding pairs captured during 2009–2017 to describe mating patterns in the study population, including: (i) the duration of social bonds for all breeding pairs formed during the study; (ii) the proportion of newly formed and remated pairs found during the entire study period and during each year; and (iii) the proportion of divorce versus mate loss causing pair dissolution.

The consequences of mate retention and successive remating were evaluated by performing mixed-effects models in the lme4 package (Bates et al. 2015) in the free software R 4.0.2 (R Core Team 2020). To assess whether reproductive success was higher for remated pairs than for newly formed pairs, we tested for the effects of pairing status (newly formed vs. remated) on measures of breeding productivity. Linear models were fit for laying date, clutch size, and number of fledglings produced. To control for between-season variation in reproductive output, we calculated Z-scores for all numeric response variables using the mean and standard deviation for each year. All models included age class of both members of a breeding pair as covariates (yearling vs. adult), and female, male and pair ID as random intercepts. First, we performed analyses on the complete set of 243 breeding attempts, and subsequently repeated the analyses on a reduced subset of data that only contained pairs whose previous pairing status was known with certainty (n = 159). This allowed to evaluate potential bias in our results, given that the complete dataset included pairs misclassified as “newly formed”, because the previous pairing status of older individuals that we captured for the first time is unknown.

We also investigated whether individuals experienced reduced reproductive success after mate replacement. To test this, we compared breeding productivity of individuals in the years before and after mate loss. We focused the analysis on widowed birds, as the frequency of divorced individuals was low in the study population. We used linear mixed-effects models that included data on laying date, clutch size, and number of fledglings produced as response variables. Each sex was tested separately, with clutch size being evaluated only for females. We included the breeding season as predictor (year x vs. x-1), and entered individual ID as a random intercept.

Lastly, to evaluate whether successive remating influenced reproductive success, we used data on pairs that bred more than once together during the study (n = 132). Linear mixed-effects models were fitted to assess the effect of the number of seasons breeding together on laying date, clutch size, and number of fledglings produced. Between-season effects were controlled as described above, while the number of seasons breeding together (range: 1–6) was introduced as predictor. Given the skewed distribution of the number of seasons breeding together in this dataset (one = 36%; two = 36%; three = 17%; four = 8%; five = 2%; six = 1%), and the possibility that its effect on reproductive success might not be linear, a dummy variable indicating whether an observation belonged to the first breeding attempt (first attempt vs. after-first attempt) was also entered as predictor. Models included female and male age class as covariates, and pair ID as a random intercept.

References:

Botero-Delgadillo, E., Quirici, V., Poblete, Y., Cuevas, E., Kuhn, S., Girg, A., Teltscher, K., Poulin, E., Kempenaers, B., & Vásquez, R. A. (2017). Variation in fine-scale genetic structure and local dispersal patterns between peripheral populations of a South American passerine bird. Ecology and Evolution, 7(20), 8363–8378. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3342

Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. 2015. Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J. Stat. Soft. 67: 1–48.

R Core Team. (2020). R: a language and environment for statistical computing, version 4.0.2. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, http://www.R.project.org

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