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72 results for “individual heterogeneity”
Individual variation in the avian gut microbiota: The influence of host state and environmental heterogeneity
<div class="abstract-group metis-abstract"> <div class="article-section__content en main"> <p>The gut microbiota have important consequences for host biological processes and there is some evidence that they also affect fitness. However, the complex, interactive nature of ecological factors that influence the gut microbiota has scarcely been investigated in natural populations. We sampled the gut microbiota of wild great tits (<em>Parus major</em>) at different life stages allowing us to evaluate how microbiota varied with respect to a diverse range of key ecological factors of two broad types: (1) host state, namely age and sex, and the life history variables, timing of breeding, fecundity and reproductive success; and (2) the environment, including habitat type, the distance of the nest to the woodland edge, and the general nest and woodland site environments. The gut microbiota varied with life history and the environment in many ways that were largely dependent on age. Nestlings were far more sensitive to environmental variation than adults, pointing to a high degree of flexibility at an important time in development. As nestlings developed their microbiota from one to two weeks of life, they retained consistent (i.e., repeatable) among-individual differences. However these apparent individual differences were driven entirely by the effect of sharing the same nest. Our findings point to important early windows during development in which the gut microbiota are most sensitive to a variety of environmental drivers at multiple scales, and suggest reproductive timing, and hence potentially parental quality or food availability, are linked with the microbiota. Identifying and explicating the various ecological sources that shape an individual's gut bacteria is of vital importance for understanding the gut microbiota's role in animal fitness.</p> </div> </div> <div class="pb-dropzone"> </div>
Data from: Evaluating the importance of individual heterogeneity in reproduction to Weddell seal population dynamics using integral projection models
<ol> <li>Identifying and accounting for unobserved individual heterogeneity in vital rates in demographic models is important for estimating population-level vital rates and identifying diverse life-history strategies, but much less is known about how this individual heterogeneity influences population dynamics.</li> <li>We aimed to understand how the distribution of individual heterogeneity in reproductive and survival rates influenced population dynamics using vital rates from a Weddell seal population by altering the distribution of individual heterogeneity in reproduction, which also altered the distribution of individual survival rates through the incorporation of our estimate of the correlation between the two rates and assessing resulting changes in population growth.</li> <li>We constructed an integral projection model (IPM) structured by age and reproductive state using estimates of vital rates for a long-lived mammal that has recently been shown to exhibit large individual heterogeneity in reproduction. Using output from the IPM, we evaluated how population dynamics changed with different underlying distributions of unobserved individual heterogeneity in reproduction.</li> <li>Results indicate that the changes to the underlying distribution of individual heterogeneity in reproduction cause very small changes in the population growth rate and other population metrics. The largest difference in the estimated population growth rate resulting from changes to the underlying distribution of individual heterogeneity was less than 1%.</li> <li>Our work highlights the differing importance of individual heterogeneity at the population level compared to the individual level. Although individual heterogeneity in reproduction may result in large differences in the lifetime fitness of individuals, changing the proportion of above- or below-average breeders in the population results in much smaller differences in annual population growth rate. For a long-lived mammal with stable and high adult-survival that gives birth to a single offspring, individual heterogeneity in reproduction has a limited effect on population dynamics. We posit that the limited effect of individual heterogeneity on population dynamics may be due to canalization of life-history traits.</li> </ol>
Individual variation in the avian gut microbiota: The influence of host state and environmental heterogeneity
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Data from: Evaluating the importance of individual heterogeneity in reproduction to Weddell seal population dynamics using integral projection models
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Data from: Integration and harmonization of trait data from plant individuals across heterogeneous sources
<p>Trait data represent the basis for ecological and evolutionary research and have relevance for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem management and earth system modelling. The collection and mobilization of trait data has strongly increased over the last decade, but many trait databases still provide only species-level, aggregated trait values (e.g. ranges, means) and lack the direct observations on which those data are based. Thus, the vast majority of trait data measured directly from individuals remains hidden and highly heterogeneous, impeding their discoverability, semantic interoperability, digital accessibility and (re-)use. Here, we integrate quantitative measurements of verbatim trait information from plant individuals (e.g. lengths, widths, counts and angles of stems, leaves, fruits and inflorescence parts) from multiple sources such as field observations and herbarium collections. We develop a workflow to harmonize heterogeneous trait measurements (e.g. trait names and their values and units) as well as additional information related to taxonomy, measurement or fact and occurrence. This data integration and harmonization builds on vocabularies and terminology from existing metadata standards and ontologies such as the Ecological Trait-data Standard (ETS), the Darwin Core (DwC), the Thesaurus Of Plant characteristics (TOP) and the Plant Trait Ontology (TO). A metadata form filled out by data providers enables the automated integration of trait information from heterogeneous datasets. We illustrate our tools with data from palms (family Arecaceae), a globally distributed (pantropical), diverse plant family that is considered a good model system for understanding the ecology and evolution of tropical rainforests. We mobilize nearly 140,000 individual palm trait measurements in an interoperable format, identify semantic gaps in existing plant trait terminology and provide suggestions for the future development of a thesaurus of plant characteristics. Our work thereby promotes the semantic integration of plant trait data in a machine-readable way and shows how large amounts of small trait data sets and their metadata can be integrated into standardized data products.</p>
Data from: Interacting effects of unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity in the life-history of the Southern fulmar
1.Individuals are heterogeneous in many ways. Some of these differences are incorporated as individual states (e.g., age, size, breeding status) in population models. However, substantial amounts of heterogeneity may remain unaccounted for, due to unmeasurable genetic, maternal, or environmental factors. 2.Such unobserved heterogeneity (UH) affects the behavior of heterogeneous cohorts via intra-cohort selection and contributes to inter-individual variance in demographic outcomes such as longevity and lifetime reproduction. Variance is also produced by individual stochasticity, due to random events in the life cycle of wild organisms, yet no study thus far has attempted to decompose the variance in demographic outcomes into contributions from unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity for an animal population in the wild. 3.We developed a stage-classified matrix population model for the Southern fulmar breeding on Ile des Pétrels, Antarctica. We applied multi-event, multi-state markrecapture methods to estimate a finite mixture model accounting for UH in all vital rates and Markov chain methods to calculate demographic outcomes. Finally, we partitioned the variance in demographic outcomes into contributions from unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity. 4.We identify three UH groups, differing substantially in longevity, lifetime reproductive output, age at first reproduction, and in the proportion of the life spent in each reproductive state. 14% of individuals at fledging have a delayed but high probability of recruitment and extended reproductive lifespan. 67% of individuals are less likely to reach adulthood, recruit late and skip breeding often but have the highest adult survival rate. 19% of individuals recruit early and attempt to breed often. They are likely to raise their offspring successfully, but experience a relatively short lifespan. Unobserved heterogeneity only explains a small fraction of the variances in longevity (5.9%), age at first reproduction (3.7%) and lifetime reproduction (22%). 5.UH can affect the entire life cycle, including survival, development, and reproductive rates, with consequences over the lifetime of individuals and impacts on cohort dynamics. The respective role of unobserved heterogeneity versus individual stochasticity varies greatly among demographic outcomes. We discuss the implication of our finding for the gradient of life-history strategies observed among species and argue that individual differences should always be accounted for in demographic studies of wild populations.
Role of individual and population heterogeneity in shaping dynamics of multi-pathogen shedding in an island endemic bat
<p>Dataset for the manuscript "<strong>Role of individual and population heterogeneity in shaping dynamics of multi-pathogen shedding in an island endemic bat</strong>", including information of the bat samples and infection data.</p>
Data sets for 'Mechanical Compliance of Individual Fractures in a Heterogeneous Rock Mass from Production-type Full-waveform Sonic Data', submitted to JGR: Solid Earth
<p>Synthetic and field FWS data sets are supplied for validation of proposed methods for compliance estimation of individual fractures. Each zip contains ‘ReadMe.txt ‘, which illustrates the files and corresponding parameters. More details about the setup in the submitted paper ‘Mechanical Compliance of Individual Fractures in a Heterogeneous Rock Mass from Production-type Full-waveform Sonic Data’.</p>
DA Diffusion Simulation for: A fluorescent nanosensor paint reveals the heterogeneity of dopamine release from neurons at individual release sites
<p>Code developed for the revision of:</p> <p>Elizarova, S., Chouaib, A., Shaib, A., Mann, F., Brose, N., Kruss, S., & Daniel, J. A. (2021). A fluorescent nanosensor paint reveals the heterogeneity of dopamine release from neurons at individual release sites. BioRxiv, 2021.03.28.437019. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.28.437019</p>
Data from: Individual heterogeneity in fitness in a long-lived herbivore
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Heterogeneity in the intrinsic quality and nutritional condition of individuals affects reproductive success and consequently fitness. Black brant (<i>Branta bernicla nigricans</i>) are long-lived, migratory, specialist herbivores. Long migratory pathways and short summer breeding seasons constrain the time and energy available for reproduction, thus magnifying life-history trade-offs. These constraints, combined with long lifespans and trade-offs between current and future reproductive value, provide a model system to examine the role of individual heterogeneity in driving life-history strategies and individual heterogeneity in fitness. We used hierarchical Bayesian models to examine reproductive trade-offs, modeling the relationships between within-year measures of reproductive energy allocation and among-year demographic rates of individual females breeding on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska using capture-recapture and reproductive data from 1988 to 2014. We generally found that annual survival tended to be buffered against variation in reproductive investment, while breeding probability varied considerably over the range of clutch size-laying date combinations. We provide evidence for relationships between breeding probability and clutch size, breeding probability and nest initiation date, and an interaction between clutch size and initiation date. Average lifetime clutch size also had a weak positive relationship with apparent survival probability. Our results support the use of demographic buffering strategies for black brant. These results also indirectly suggest associations among environmental conditions during growth, fitness, and energy allocation, highlighting the effects of early growth conditions on individual heterogeneity, and subsequently, lifetime reproductive investment.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
Climatic forcing and individual heterogeneity in a resident mountain bird: legacy data reveal effects on reproductive strategies
<p><span>Optimization of clutch size and timing of reproduction </span><span>have substantial effects on lifetime reproductive success in vertebrates, and b</span><span>oth </span><span>individual quality and </span><span>environmental variation may impact </span><span>life history strategies</span><span>. </span><span>We tested hypotheses related to maternal investment and timing of reproduction</span><span>, using 17 years (1978-1994) of individual-based life history data on willow ptarmigan (<em>Lagopus l. lagopus</em>, </span><span>n=290 breeding females with n=319 breeding attempts</span><span>) in central Norway. We analysed whether climatic variation and individual state variables (age and body mass) affected number of offspring and timing of reproduction, and individual repeatability in strategies</span><span>. The results suggest that willow ptarmigan share a common optimal clutch size that is largely independent of measured individual states. While we found no clear direct weather effects on clutch size, higher spring temperatures advanced onset of breeding, and early breeding was followed by an increased number of offspring. Warmer springs were positively related to maternal mass, and mass interacted with clutch size in production of hatchlings. Finally, clutch size and timing of reproduction were highly repeatable within individuals, indicating that individual quality guided trade-offs in reproductive effort. Our results demonstrate how climatic forcing and individual heterogeneity in combination influenced life history traits in a resident montane keystone species.</span></p>
Data from: Interacting effects of unobserved heterogeneity and individual stochasticity in the life-history of the Southern fulmar
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Data from: Integration and harmonization of trait data from plant individuals across heterogeneous sources
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Climatic forcing and individual heterogeneity in a resident mountain bird: legacy data reveal effects on reproductive strategies
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Individual heterogeneity in fitness in a long‐lived herbivore
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Data from: Early-life conditions determine the between-individual heterogeneity in plasticity of calving date in reindeer
1. Phenotypic plasticity has become a key-concept to enhance our ability to understand the adaptive potential of species to track the pace of climate change by allowing a relatively rapid adjustment of life history traits. 2. Recently, population-level trends of an earlier timing of reproduction to climate change have been highlighted in many taxa but only few studies have explicitly taken into consideration between-individual heterogeneity in phenotypic plasticity. 3. Using a long-term data of a semi-domesticated reindeer (<i>Rangifer tarandus</i>) population, we demonstrated that females differed greatly in their mean calving date but only slightly in the magnitude of their plastic response to the amount of precipitation in April. We also showed that despite the absence of a population trend, females individually responded to the amount of precipitation in April by delaying their calving dates. 4. Females' calving date under average climatic conditions was best predicted by their birthdate, their physical condition in March-April-May before their first calving season and by their first calving date. The degree of their phenotypic plasticity was not dependent on any of the females' attributes early in life tested in this study. However, females who delayed their calving dates in response to a higher amount of precipitation in April slightly produced less calves over their reproductive life. 5. These findings confirmed that early life conditions of female reindeer can shape their phenotypic value during reproductive life, supporting the importance of maternal effects in shaping individuals' lifetime reproductive success. Whether females differed in the magnitude of their plastic response to climatic changes has received contrasted responses for various ungulate species. This calls for more research to enhance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms leading to the complexity of plastic responses among populations to cope with current climate change.
Data from: Heterogeneity in individual quality in birds: overall patterns and insights from a study on common terns
While life-history theory predicts a trade-off between reproduction and survival, positive covariance, indicative of heterogeneity in individual quality, is often reported among individuals from natural populations. We review longitudinal studies of wild bird populations that test the relationship between annual reproductive success and lifespan and find the majority to report a positive correlation, while none reports a negative correlation. Heterogeneity in individual quality in resource acquisition, masking resource-based trade-offs, therefore appears to be common in birds. Considering that there is little evidence for heritable variation in fitness, heterogeneity in individual quality among adults may be due to life-long effects of developmental conditions. In a 20-year case study on common terns (Sterna hirundo), we test for life-long effects of cohort quality and within-cohort nest quality, but find no significant effects on long-term proxies of quality. Since other studies do find strong life-long effects of developmental conditions, we suggest that the brood reduction strategy adopted by common terns, causing the majority of offspring to die rapidly after hatching, efficiently reduces variation in offspring quality at independence. As such, a brood reduction strategy may contribute to reduced heterogeneity in adult survival in stochastic environments, both suggested to be more common and adaptive in long-lived species. Further study is required to assess heterogeneity in individual reproduction, especially in relation to environmental stochasticity and species' life-history strategies, in order to assess whether the relative strength of selection in early and late life may indeed affect the magnitude of heterogeneity in individual quality over life, and how this is mediated by parent-offspring conflict.
Data from: Individual heterogeneity determines sex differences in mortality in a monogamous bird with reversed sexual dimorphism
Sex differences in mortality are pervasive in vertebrates, and usually result in shorter life spans in the larger sex, although the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. On the other hand, differences in frailty among individuals (i.e. individual heterogeneity), can play a major role in shaping demographic trajectories in wild populations. The link between these two processes has seldom been explored. We used Bayesian survival trajectory analysis to study age-specific mortality trajectories in the Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), a monogamous raptor with reversed sexual size dimorphism. We tested the effect of individual heterogeneity on age-specific mortality, and the extent by which this heterogeneity was determined by average reproductive output and wing length as measures of an individual's frailty. We found that sex differences in age-specific mortality were primarily driven by the differences in individual heterogeneity between the two sexes. Females were more heterogeneous than males in their level of frailty. Thus, a larger number of females with low frailty are able to survive to older ages than males, with life expectancy for the least frail adult females reaching up to 4·23 years, while for the least frail adult males it was of 2·68 years. We found that 50% of this heterogeneity was determined by average reproductive output and wing length in both sexes. For both, individuals with high average reproductive output had also higher chances to survive. However, the effect of wing length was different between the two sexes. While larger females had higher survival, larger males had lower chances to survive. Our results contribute a novel perspective to the ongoing debate about the mechanisms that drive sex differences in vital rates in vertebrates. Although we found that variables that relate to the cost of reproduction and sexual dimorphism are at least partially involved in determining these sex differences, it is through their effect on the level of frailty that they affect age patterns of mortality. Therefore, our results raise the possibility that observed differences in age-specific demographic rates may in fact be driven by differences in individual heterogeneity.
Data from: Successful by chance? the power of mixed models and neutral simulations for the detection of individual fixed heterogeneity in fitness components
Heterogeneity in fitness components consists of fixed heterogeneity due to latent differences fixed throughout life (e.g. genetic variation), and dynamic heterogeneity generated by stochastic variation. Their relative magnitude is crucial for evolutionary processes, as only the former may allow for adaptation. However, the importance of fixed heterogeneity in small populations has recently been questioned. Using neutral simulations (NS), several studies failed to detect fixed heterogeneity, thus challenging previous results from mixed models (MM). To understand the causes of this discrepancy, we estimate the statistical power and false positive rate of both methods, and apply them to empirical data from a wild rodent population. While MM show high false positive rates if confounding factors are not accounted for, they have high statistical power to detect real fixed heterogeneity. In contrast, NS are also subject to high false positive rates, but have always low power. Indeed, MM analyses of the rodent population data show significant fixed heterogeneity in reproductive success, whereas NS analyses do not. We suggest that fixed heterogeneity may be more common than is suggested by NS, and that NS are useful only if more powerful methods are not applicable and if they are complemented by a power analysis.
Heterogeneity in resource competition covaries with individual variation in long-term social relationships
<p>Resource competition among conspecifics is central to social evolution, as it serves as one of the primary selective pressures of group living. This is because the degree of competition for resources impacts the costs and benefits of social interactions. Despite this, how heterogeneity in resource competition drives variation in the type and quantity of long-term social relationships individuals foster has been overlooked. By measuring male mating competition and female foraging competition in a highly social, long-lived mammal, we demonstrate that individual variation in long-term intrasexual social relationships covaries with preferred habitat and experienced resource competition, and this effect differs based on the sex of the individual. Specifically, greater resource competition resulted in fewer social preferences, but the magnitude of the effect varied by both habitat and sex, whereas for social avoidances, both the directionality and magnitude of the effect of resource competition varied by habitat and sex. Together our work shows how fine-scale variation in individual socioecological niches (i.e., unique physical and social environments) can drive extensive variation in individual social behavior (here long-term relationships) within a population, thereby broadening current theories of social evolution.</p>
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.