DOI: 10.5061/dryad.vq83bk440
title: Data from: Individual variation and selection for phenotypic plasticity of laying date and clutch size across different environmental conditions in Tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)

description: Several studies have emphasized that phenotypic plasticity should be a key
 mechanism to cope with current rapid environmental changes by allowing
 individuals to quickly express new adaptive phenotypes. Yet, few studies
 have investigated the evolutionary potential of plasticity for multiple
 traits simultaneously and using several different environmental variables.
 Here, we assess the extent of variation in, and the selection acting on
 phenotypic plasticity of key ecological traits, laying date and clutch
 size, using five environmental variables, in a Tree swallow (Tachycineta
 bicolor) population monitored since 2004. While we found some variation
 among females in their mean laying date and plasticity, we found evidence
 of selection acting only on mean laying date. We found no variation among
 females in mean clutch size or plasticity, such that we could not assess
 selection acting on either. Our results suggest that the evolutionary
 potential of plasticity in the population under study is limited,
 especially for clutch size. More studies investigating plasticity in wild
 populations and incorporating multiple traits and environmental variables
 are needed to understand future responses of animal populations to
 environmental changes.
description: # JEB-Individual variation and selection for phenotypic plasticity of
 laying date and clutch size across different environmental conditions in
 Tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vq83bk440](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vq83bk440) ## Description of the data and file structure ### Files and variables #### File: Female\_2005\_2021.csv **Description:** Data specific to each female individual. ##### Variables * idclutch: clutch id * id: combination of #farm and #nest box * farm: #farm * nestbox: #nest box * year: year of the observation * clutch_size: number of eggs laid * nfledgling: number of fledglings * pred_pot: presence of signs of predation (presence or absence) * laying_date: laying date of the first egg of the clutch (ordinal date) * idF1: ID of the female * age_morpho_indic: morphological age (SY=0 or ASY=1) * mass: mass (g) * breeder_density: number of nest boxes occupied by tree swallow on the farm * hosp_density: number of nest boxes occupied by house sparrow on the same farm * extensive_landscape: proportion of the landscape arround the nest box corresponding to extensive landscape #### File: Temperature\_2005-2021.csv **Description:** Temperature data for all weather stations used from 2005 to 2021. This is the raw data we collected from the Environment Canada website ([http://weather.gc.ca/](http://weather.gc.ca/)). ##### Variables * lon: longitude (decimal format) * lat: latitude (decimal format) * station: name of the meteorological station * id_clim: ID of the meteorological station * date: date (year-month-day) * year: year * month: month * day: day of the month * julianday: ordinal date * temp_max: maximum temperature recorded that day (°C) * temp_min: minimum temperature recorded that day (°C) * temp_mean: mean temperature recorded that day (maximum temperature - minimum temperature)(°C) #### File: Temperature\_by\_farm\_2005-2021.csv **Description:** Temperature data once the farms were associated with one or more stations (depending on the presence of missing data or not). This dataset contains temperatures for the months of March, April, and May. It is the one we used for the sliding window analysis. ##### Variables * farm: #farm * year: year * month: month * day: day of the month * station: name of the meteorological station * temp_min: minimum temperature recorded that day at that station (°C) * temp_max: maximum temperature recorded that day at that station (°C) * temp_mean: mean temperature recorded that day at that station (maximum temperature - minimum temperature)(°C) * date: date (year-month-day)