DOI: 10.5061/dryad.n8pk0p35h
title: Data from: Feeling disconnected: River fragmentation alters parenting, aggression, and risk-taking in threespine stickleback

description: Habitat fragmentation is a global challenge stemming from human-induced
 change. As habitat fragmentation is expected to worsen across time, there
 is a need to identify organism traits that can predict population
 persistence within fragments. Behavioral traits are primary candidates for
 understanding population response to fragmentation because behavior often
 serves as a first response to human-induced change. While behavior is a
 topic of interest in the context of habitat fragmentation, many studies
 are limited to investigating movement patterns. Parental care behaviors
 are directly tied to individual fitness and offspring survival, and may
 provide predictive value to population persistence under fragmentation.
 However, it remains unclear both whether and how parental care differs in
 organisms found in fragmented areas. We utilized the threespine
 stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a fish with obligatory paternal
 care, to examine the effects of aquatic fragmentation on parental care,
 territorial aggression, and juvenile risk-taking behavior. Following the
 identification of fragmented (pooled) and non-fragmented (connected)
 sites, we recorded parenting behaviors necessary for offspring survival.
 We then exposed territorial and parenting males to both a known and an
 unknown conspecific intruder to assess aggression. Finally, juveniles were
 measured in a risk-taking assay. Adult stickleback in fragmented sites
 showed a reduction in parental care and heightened aggression towards
 unknown conspecific intruders, while juveniles in fragmented sites were
 more hesitant to emerge into a novel environment. Altogether, our results
 provide support for changes in parental care within habitat fragments that
 may have generational consequences.
description: This study investigates differences in behavioral phenotypes in
 stickleback found in pooled and connected areas of the Navarro River, a
 single river system located in Philo, California. From May- July 2022, we
 collected behavioral data that can be placed into three major categories:
 parental care, aggression, and risk-taking. Adults males were used for
 parental care and aggression, while juveniles were used for risk-taking.
 All data was processed using R. Studio version 2023.03.0
description: # Parental care, aggression, and risk-taking behavior in Threespine
 Stickleback Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.n8pk0p35h](10.5061/dryad.n8pk0p35h) ## Description of the
 data and file structure This study investigates differences in behavioral
 phenotypes in stickleback found in pooled and connected areas of the
 Navarro River. From May to July 2022, we examined three different
 behaviors: parental care, aggression, and risk-taking. Adult males were
 used for parental care and aggression, while juveniles were used for
 risk-taking. All missing data are represented as NA. ### Files and
 variables #### File: BoldnessData2022_Submission.csv **Description:** This
 dataset utilizes juvenile stickleback to study risk-taking behavior using
 a scototaxis assay. The assay was a 5-gallon bucket with half of the area
 covered in black duct tape and the other half covered in white duct tape.
 ##### Variables * Site: Location of data collection (within pooled or
 connected area) * Connected: Whether her site was considered pooled or
 connected * ID: Individual * Date: Date of observation (day/month/year) *
 Time: Time of observation (12:00 am/pm) * Latency: Time it took to emerge
 from a stickleback pod into a scototaxis assay (s). Maximum time allotted
 was 180 seconds.  * Startcol: Color of the assay tank that fish emerged
 into first  (black or white) * TimeWhite: Time spent in the white portion
 of the assay (s) * pH: pH of the site  * temp: Temperature of the site (F)
 #### File: parentingdata2022_Submission.csv **Description:** This dataset
 contains direct care behaviors of adult male threespine stickleback found
 in pools and connected areas. Males were observed for a total of 10
 minutes.  ##### Variables * site: Location of data collection (within
 pooled or connected area) * pc: Whether the site was considered pooled or
 connected  * id: Individual * date: Date of observation (day/month/year) *
 time: Time of observation (12:00 am/pm) * length: Length of the focal
 individual (in) * lengthMM: Length of focal individual (mm) * nest: Time
 spent on the nest (s) * fanning: Time spent fanning (s) * poke: Number of
 pokes at the nest (count) * chase: Number of chases at intruders (count) *
 glue: Number of gluing events at the nest (count) * tunnel: Number of
 times an individual tunneled through the nest (count) * nstage: Whether
 nests had eggs or fry (egg/fry) * ndepth: Depth of nest (in) *
 nearestn: Nearest neighbor distance (in) * shore: Distance of nest to
 shore (in) #### File: AggressionData2022__Submission.csv
 **Description:** This dataset contains aggression behaviors of territorial
 and parenting male threespine stickleback found in pooled and connected
 areas. Males were exposed in random order to an empty cage, a neighbor
 (individual from the same site) or a stranger (individual from a different
 site).  ##### Variables * Site: Location of data collection (within pooled
 or connected area) * connected: Whether the site was considered a pooled
 or connected area * id: Individual * date: Date of observation
 (day/month/year) * time: Time of observation (12:00 am/pm) * focal: The
 individual bis exhibitingaggressive behaviors * focallength:  Length of
 the focal individual (in) * stim: The stimulus individual being placed in
 the cage  * stimlength: Length of the stimulus fish in the cage (in) *
 stimlocality: Where the stimulus fish was taken from for assays  *
 exposureorder: The order that the empty cage, neighbor, or straws were
 presented to the focal fish (1,2,3) * timetoorient: Time to orient to the
 intruder (s) * totaltimeorient: Total time spent orienting towards the
 intruder (s) * bite: Total number of bites at the intruder (count) * fan
 on: Total time fanning nest during the aggression assay (s) * poke: Total
 time poking nest during the aggression assay (count) * chase: Total time
 chasing other intruders during the aggression assay (count) * sshape:
 Total times a male forms an S shape at the intruder during the assay
 (count) ## Code/software Data were analyzed in R Studio Version 2023.03.0.
 Packages used include tidyverse, magrittr, rptR, car, lme4, ggpubr, MuMIn,
 lmerTest, emmeans, rstatix, patchwork, plyr. Code is included as an RMD
 file (20250813_FieldData_EcolEvol.Rmd) and HTML
 (20250813_FieldData_EcolEvol.html). The analysis is divided into three
 sections. Each section includes cleaning of each dataset, outlier checks,
 linear models, and plots for each behavior of interest within a section.