Changing food availability and its effect on the heritability of offspring size in woodland passerine birds

Climate warming has been associated with widespread body size declines in many vertebrate taxa, but relatively little is known about possible climate warming induced shifts in trait heritabilities. The main goal of the study was to investigate how changing food availability affects evolutionary potential of four traits related to nestlings’ body size. We used long-term, pedigree structured data of two woodland passerines living in the boreal zone, the Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) and the Great Tit (Parus major), to study how food availability for their nestlings has changed in time, how this has influenced their morphological traits (viz. wing, tail & tarsus length & body mass) and their heritabilities and evolvabilities. This was done by assessing heritabilities under varying food availabilities using random regression animal models. We found that caterpillar food availability had increased over the 25 years long study period and that this was accompanied by increases of nestl..., , # Changing food availability and its effect on the heritability of offspring size in woodland passerine birds

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.xpnvx0kvh](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xpnvx0kvh)

## Description of the data and file structure

Paper associated with this archive

Citation: Vatka, Emma; Orell, Markku; Rytkönen, Seppo; Merilä, Juha (2025) Changing food availability and its effect on the heritability of offspring size in woodland passerine birds. Journal of Animal Ecology.

Dates of data collection: Years 1996-2020

Geographic location of data collection: Oulu, Finland (N 65°05’, E 25°33’)

## Data and code file overview

Data on morphological measures of Willow Tit (*Poecile montanus*) and Great Tit (*Parus major*) nestlings were collected with standard methods during years 1996–2020 for which also food availability data was available. Nestlings were measured at the age of two weeks (13 days or 14 days old for the Willow Tit and the Great Tit, respectively; 0 = hatching date of...,

气候变暖已被证实与众多脊椎动物类群普遍出现的体型减小现象相关，但目前学界对气候变暖可能引发的性状遗传力（heritability）变化仍知之甚少。本研究的核心目标为探究食物可获得性的变化如何影响与雏鸟体型相关的四类性状的进化潜能（evolutionary potential）。我们采用了栖息于寒温带（boreal zone）的两种林栖雀形目鸟类——沼泽山雀（Willow Tit, *Poecile montanus*）和大山雀（Great Tit, *Parus major*）的长期谱系结构化数据（pedigree structured data），以此分析其雏鸟的食物可获得性随时间的变化趋势，以及该变化如何影响它们的形态性状（即翅长、尾长、跗跖长与体质量）及其遗传力和进化潜能。本研究通过随机回归动物模型（random regression animal models），评估了不同食物可获得性条件下的性状遗传力。研究发现，在长达25年的观测周期内，雏鸟的鳞翅目幼虫食物可获得性显著提升，且伴随这一变化的还有雏鸟……

# 林栖雀形目鸟类食物可获得性变化及其对后代体型遗传力的影响
数据集DOI: [10.5061/dryad.xpnvx0kvh](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xpnvx0kvh)

## 数据与文件结构说明
本数据集关联的论文
引用：Vatka, Emma; Orell, Markku; Rytkönen, Seppo; Merilä, Juha (2025) 《林栖雀形目鸟类食物可获得性变化及其对后代体型遗传力的影响》，《动物生态学杂志》
数据采集时间：1996年至2020年
数据采集地理位置：芬兰奥卢（北纬65°05′，东经25°33′）

## 数据与代码文件概览
本数据集包含1996年至2020年间采集的沼泽山雀（*Poecile montanus*）和大山雀（*Parus major*）雏鸟的形态测量数据，同期也同步收集了食物可获得性数据。雏鸟于两周龄时开展形态测量（沼泽山雀雏鸟为破壳后13日龄，大山雀雏鸟为14日龄；破壳日记为0日龄，……