Bumble bee demographic data for functional linear models

1. Behavior and organization of social groups is thought to be vital to
the functioning of societies, yet the contributions of various roles
within social groups towards population growth and dynamics have been
difficult to quantify. A common approach to quantifying these role-based
contributions is evaluating the number of individuals conducting certain
roles, which ignores how behavior might scale up to effects at
the population-level. Manipulative experiments are another common
approach to determine population-level effects, but they often
ignore potential feedbacks associated with these various roles.
2. Here, we evaluate the effects of worker size distribution in bumblebee
colonies on worker production in 24 observational colonies across three
environments, using functional linear models. Functional linear
models are an underused correlative technique that has been used
to assess lag effects of environmental drivers on plant
performance. We demonstrate potential applications of this
technique for exploring high-dimensional ecological systems, such as
the contributions of individuals with different traits to colony
dynamics. 3. We found that more larger workers had mostly positive effects
and more smaller workers had negative effects on worker
production. Most of these effects were only detected under low
or fluctuating resource environments suggesting that the
advantage of colonies with larger-bodied workers becomes more
apparent under stressful conditions. 4. We also demonstrate the wider
ecological application of functional linear models. We highlight
the advantages and limitations when considering these models, and how they
are a valuable complement to many of these performance-based and
manipulative experiments.