Social network differences and phenotypic divergence between stickleback ecotypes

Elucidating the mechanisms underlying differentiation between populations is essential to our understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes. While social network analysis has yielded numerous insights in behavioral ecology in recent years, it has rarely been applied to questions about population differentiation. Here, we use social network analysis to assess the potential role of social behavior in the recent divergence between two three-spined stickleback ecotypes, “whites” and “commons”. These ecotypes differ significantly in their social behavior and mating systems as adults, but it is unknown when or how differences in social behavior develop. We found that as juveniles, the white ecotype was bolder and more active than the common ecotype. Furthermore, while there was no evidence for assortative shoaling preferences, the two ecotypes differed in social network structure. Specifically, groups of the white ecotype had a lower clustering coefficient than groups of the common ..., Dataset is social behavior data on stickleback using automated video tracking technolgy (idTracker - https://www.idtracker.es/)., All data was analyzed in R. , # Data for article - Social network differences underlie phenotypic divergence between stickleback ecotypes

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Authors: Kevin M. Neumann, Alison M. Bell
Date created: 11/09/22

Article is currently in review in Behavioral Ecology.

Data is from a study conducted in October - November 2020 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This is a laboratory study exploring the social behavior of three-spined stickleback fish. Fish from two ecoytypes - white and common - were tested for inividual boldness and activity. They were then assigned to one of three group types - common groups that were ony common ecotype fish, white groups that were only white ecotype fish, and mixed groups made up of 50% white ecotype and 50% common ecotype.

Upon publication, methodological details will be available in the manuscript. Until then, contact Kevin M. Neumann for details via email - [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

## Description of the Data and file structure

File count: 8...