Photoperiod and rainfall are associated with seasonal shifts in social structure in a songbird

Seasonally breeding animals often exhibit different social structures during non-breeding and breeding periods that coincide with seasonal environmental variation. Therefore, ongoing climate change may play an important role in determining the future structure of animal societies, especially if climate determines when seasonal shifts in social structure occur. However, we know little about the environmental cues that determine the timing of seasonal shifts in social structure, a lack of knowledge that contrasts with our well-defined knowledge of the environmental cues that trigger a shift to breeding physiology in seasonally breeding species. Here we tested whether the environmental cues that drive seasonal shifts in social structure are similar to those that determine timing of breeding in the red-backed fairywren (Malurus melanocephalus), an Australian songbird. Social network analyses revealed that social groups, which are highly territorial during the breeding season, interact in so..., , See README file for descriptions of each dataset and summaries of each R script. See annotated R code for instructions on how to run the analyses. All analyses were conducted in R version 3.5.2 unless otherwise specified. , , # Data from: Photoperiod and rainfall are associated with seasonal shifts in social structure in a songbird

Publication: Behavioral Ecology

File preparation date: 5 November 2022

Authors: Joseph F. Welklin, Samantha M. Lantz, Sarah Khalil, Nicole M. Moody, Jordan Karubian, Michael S. Webster

Contact Joseph Welklin at [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]) with questions

## Summary of data and code

This paper included tests of many different questions and many of our datasets used to answer these questions did not
overlap. Therefore, we typically used different R scripts to answer each question or set of questions.
The data for these scripts are included in two folders. The Input files folder contains mostly raw data from a database
and data collected in the field. The Output files folder contains processed data files created using the attached
scripts and the raw data files. These output files were used in further analyses. Scripts can be run by first loading
the R-projec...