Data from: Consistency of animal social networks after disturbance

Social networks encompass both individual and group phenotypes that have been shown to covary with fitness in several species. In order for network characters to be evolutionarily important, they must reliably reflect properties of an individual or groups of individuals; however, it is unknown whether network traits are consistently expressed at either level. To determine if measurable components of individual social network position were repeatable and if the network structure as a whole was consistent in Bolitotherus cornutus (the forked fungus beetle) we constructed eight experimental populations. Half of the populations were disturbed between two observation periods. Two individual network metrics (strength and betweenness) were significantly repeatable across time in all treatments; a third (clustering coefficient) was not. At the network level, all three metrics changed more in undisturbed than disturbed networks. These findings suggest that individual network position can be a consistent property of individuals that is resilient to disturbance and could experience selection in a predictable fashion. However, group network structure seems to change over time unless reset by disturbance.

社交网络（social network）涵盖个体表型与群体表型，已有研究表明这类表型在多个物种中与适合度（fitness）存在共变关系。若要社交网络特征具备进化重要性，则其必须可靠反映个体或群体的属性；但目前尚不清楚，网络性状在任一水平上是否会稳定表达。为探究叉角粪甲虫（Bolitotherus cornutus）的个体社交网络地位的可测量组分是否具备可重复性，且其整体网络结构是否保持稳定，我们构建了8个实验种群。半数实验种群在两次观测周期之间接受了干扰处理。两项个体网络指标——节点强度（strength）与介数中心性（betweenness）——在所有处理组中均表现出显著的时间可重复性；第三项指标聚类系数（clustering coefficient）则未表现出该特性。在群体网络水平上，三项指标在未受干扰组中的变化幅度显著大于受干扰组。上述研究结果表明，个体的社交网络地位可作为个体的稳定属性，具备抗干扰能力，并可能以可预测的方式受到选择作用。然而，群体网络结构似乎会随时间发生改变，除非通过干扰处理使其重置。