DOI: 10.5061/dryad.c866t1gjp
title: Behavioral DiverCity: Individual differences in behavior change along an urbanization gradient

description: Urbanization is occurring globally at an unprecedented rate and, despite
 the eco-evolutionary importance of individual variation in adaptive
 traits, we still have very limited insight on how phenotypic variation is
 modified by anthropogenic environmental change. Urbanization can increase
 individual differences in some contexts, but whether this is generalizable
 to behavioral traits, which directly affect how organisms interact with
 and respond to environmental variation, is not known. Here we examine
 variation across three behavioral traits (breath rate, handling aggression
 and exploration behaviour) in great tits Parus major along an urbanization
 gradient (n &gt; 1000 phenotyped individuals accross nine years) to
 determine whether among-individual variance in behavior increases with the
 degree of urbanization and spatial heterogeneity. Urban birds were more
 aggressive and faster explorers than forest birds. They also displayed
 higher among-individual variation for breath rate and aggression (1.5 and
 1.8 times increase, respectively), but lower among-individual variation
 for exploration (3.3 times decrease). Only individual variation in
 exploration clearly changed along the continuous urbanization gradient;
 individual differences in exploration declined with increasing impervious
 surface area. Collectively our results suggest that individuals in the
 city may have more diverse behavioral stress responses, yet display
 stronger similarity in their behavioral responses to novelty. Our results
 suggest that generalizations about urbanization’s impacts on behavioral
 variation are not appropriate. Instead our results suggest that
 urbanization can shape individual variation differently across behavioral
 functions and we may expect decreased individual diversity in urban birds
 for traits related to behavioral response to novelty.
description: # Behavioural DiverCity **Author**: Laura Gervais ## Overview This
 repository contains datasets and R scripts used in the study of
 behavioural variation along an urbanization gradient in wild populations.
 The data include measures of aggressiveness, exploration, and breath rate,
 along with environmental and individual-level metadata. --- ## 1. Datasets
 ### `aggressivite_online.rds` Contains individual-level data on
 aggressiveness scores. **Variables:** * `agressivite`: Aggressiveness
 score (range: 0–3, in 0.5 increments) * `lieu`: Study site of capture *
 `repet`: Number of previous behavioural assays * `sex`: Sex of the
 individual (1 = male, 2 = female) * `age_cat`: Age category (`Ad` = adult,
 `Juv` = juvenile) * `heure_dec`: Decimal hour when measurements were taken
 * `date`: Julian day when measurements were taken * `obs_agr`: Initials of
 the observer recording aggressiveness * `an`: Year of the assay *
 `propurban`: Proportion of impervious surface within a 1000 m buffer *
 `propurban100`: Proportion of impervious surface within a 100 m buffer *
 `propurban250`: Proportion of impervious surface within a 250 m buffer *
 `bague`: Unique identifier of the individual --- ### `explo_online.rds`
 Contains individual-level data on exploration scores. **Variables:** *
 `sauts`: Number of flights and hops during the 4-minute exploration trial
 * `station_corrected`: Study site of capture * `protocole_of`: Protocol
 type used (`old` or `new`) * `repet_OF`: Number of previous behavioural
 assays * `age`: Age category (`Ad` = adult, `Juv` = juvenile) *
 `heure_RR_decimale`: Decimal hour when measurements were taken * `jdate`:
 Julian day when measurements were taken * `an`: Year of the assay *
 `bague`: Unique identifier of the individual --- ###
 `breathrate_online.rds` Contains individual-level data on breath rate.
 **Variables:** * `meanRR`: Breath rate in seconds (time to complete 30
 chest movements) * `station_corrected`: Study site of capture *
 `protocole_RR`: Protocol type used (`old` or `new`) * `rang_capture`:
 Number of previous assays * `sexe`: Sex of the individual (1 = male, 2 =
 female) * `age`: Age category (`Ad` = adult, `Juv` = juvenile) *
 `heure_RR_decimale`: Decimal hour when measurements were taken * `jdate`:
 Julian day when measurements were taken * `obs_RR`: Initials of the
 observer recording breath rate * `an`: Year of the assay * `bague`: Unique
 identifier of the individual --- ### `isadata.rds` Contains nestbox-level
 data on urbanization. **Variables:** * `NestboxID`: Unique identifier of
 the nestbox * `propurban`: Proportion of impervious surface within a 1000
 m buffer * `propurban100`: Proportion of impervious surface within a 100 m
 buffer * `propurban250`: Proportion of impervious surface within a 250 m
 buffer --- ## 2. Scripts These R scripts are used to analyse the data.
 **R** is required to run them. * `aggressivite_persite_online.R`: Performs
 variance decomposition by site, variance comparison, and analysis of
 variance along the urbanization gradient for aggressiveness scores. *
 `explo_persite_online.R`: Performs variance decomposition by site,
 variance comparison, and analysis of variance along the urbanization
 gradient for exploration scores. * `breathrate_persite_online.R`: Performs
 variance decomposition by site, variance comparison, and analysis of
 variance along the urbanization gradient for breath rate. Annotations and
 comments are provided throughout each script to guide interpretation and
 use.