Do animal personality components independently evolve and develop in response to environmental complexity?

Widespread existence of consistent differences in behaviour among individuals even within species and populations, i.e., animal personality, has been established since the last decades in a wide array of taxa. However, little is known about personality traits' ontogeny and evolution. This study aimed at exploring eco-evolutionary mechanisms driving the emergence and development of animal personality. Focusing on boldness as a personality trait, we assessed how personality components (mean, among- and within-individual variabilities, repeatability, and plasticity in response to environmental complexity) develop at early age. Investigating developmental trajectories of all personality components, rather than averages only, offers a more exhaustive and comprehensive picture of how personality emerges, develops, and evolves. We compared personality components between juveniles of five morphs of Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) ranging along gradients of ecological and genetic divergence fr..., , , # Do animal personality components independently evolve and develop in response to environmental complexity?

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xgxd254q2](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xgxd254q2)

### Research questions

In the present study, we examined the eco-evolutionary mechanisms shaping the emergence and development of animal personality profiles. For that, we tested the influence of a key environmental factor in behavioural and cognitive development – structural complexity – on each personality trait's components (mean, among- and within-individual variabilities, repeatability and plasticity). We focused on the most studied personality trait, boldness – the individual propensity to take risks – that has recently been reported in the Arctic charr. We compared the developmental trajectories of all boldness components in juveniles of five wild Arctic charr morphs (*Salvelinus alpinus*), ranging along gradients of ecological and genetic divergence, exposed in common garden to plain vs....