Geography, environmental conditions, and life history shape patterns of within-population phenotypic variation in North American birds

Abstract Intraspecific variation is a fundamental component of biodiversity, shaping species interactions and coexistence dynamics. While numerous mechanisms have been proposed to shape the degree of phenotypic variation within species, many remain largely untested or poorly explored at broad spatial and taxonomic scales. Using data from nearly 200,000 birds from 99 species captured across North America, we investigated hypothesized drivers of within-population phenotypic variation, using body mass and wing length as traits of interest. The magnitude of observed phenotypic variation was modulated by a combination of geographic, environmental, and life-history factors. This was true whether considering differences in within-population phenotypic variation within or among species. The impact of these non-mutually exclusive mechanisms has resulted in substantial variation in the observed magnitude of within-population phenotypic variation. These results provide empirical evidence for a set of long-standing hypotheses regarding the processes that regulate observed patterns of this understudied, but important, component of biodiversity. Data description The following file structure is contained in Data.zip. Data/ -L1/ --MAPS-master-2024-12-12.rds --consensus_tree-2025-01-10.rds -L2/ --cv_data_covs-2025-01-08.rds MAPS-master-2024-12-12.rds Each row corresponds to one individual captured as part of the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program (DeSante et al. 2004). Data are curated and managed by The Institute for Bird Populations. DeSante, D. F., J. F. Saracco, D. R. O’Grady, K. M. Burton, and B. L. Walker. 2004. Methodological considerations of the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program. Studies in Avian Biology:28–45. sci_name - Scientific name of speciescommon_name - Common name of speciessp_id - Numeric species IDcn_id - Numeric Species/station IDstation_id - Numeric banding station IDlat - Latitude banding station lng - Longitude banding stationlog_mass - log(mass) of individual birdlog_wing - log(length of unflattened wing chord) of individual bird consensus_tree-2025-01-10.rds Consensus phylogenetic tree for species used in this study of class phylo, which can be manipulated in R using the ape package. cv_data_covs-2025-01-08.rds trait - which trait the value is referring to, wing or masssci_name - Scientific name of speciessp_id - Numeric species IDstation_id - Numeric banding station IDcv_within_post_mean - Posterior mean within-population variation (CV) each species/stationcv_within_post_sd - Posterior sd within-population variation (CV) each species/stationcv_within_among_sp_post_mean - Posterior mean species-level within-population variation (CV)cv_within_among_sp_post_sd - Posterior sd species-level within-population variation (CV)lat - Latitude banding station lng - Longitude banding stationdistance_edge_km_buffer10 - Distance to range edgeDHI_spatial_var_10km - Spatial variation in DHIDHI_temporal_var_10km - Temporal variation in DHImigration_dist_km - Species migration distancerange_size_km2 - Species range sizeGenLength - Species generation length (i.e., generation time)HWI - Hang Wing Index## 摘要 种内变异是生物多样性的核心组成部分，其塑造了物种种间相互作用与群落共存动态。尽管学界已提出诸多机制用以阐释物种种内表型变异的程度，但多数机制在大空间尺度与跨类群维度下仍未得到充分检验或探索。本研究依托北美地区捕获的99个物种近20万只鸟类的数据，以体重与翼长为目标性状，对种群内表型变异的假说驱动因子展开了探究。观测到的表型变异幅度受地理、环境与生活史因素的共同调控，无论分析物种种内还是物种间的种群内表型变异差异，这一规律均成立。这些非互斥机制的共同作用，使得观测到的种群内表型变异幅度存在显著差异。本研究结果为一系列长期存在的假说提供了实证支撑，这些假说围绕调控这一虽未被充分研究但却至关重要的生物多样性组分的相关过程展开。 ## 数据说明 本数据集压缩包`Data.zip`包含如下文件结构： Data/ ├─ L1/ │ ├─ MAPS-master-2024-12-12.rds │ └─ consensus_tree-2025-01-10.rds └─ L2/ └─ cv_data_covs-2025-01-08.rds ### MAPS-master-2024-12-12.rds 每行对应一只作为**鸟类生产力与存活监测（Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship, MAPS）**项目（DeSante等，2004）捕获的个体。数据由鸟类种群研究所（The Institute for Bird Populations）整理管理。 > DeSante, D. F., J. F. Saracco, D. R. O’Grady, K. M. Burton, and B. L. Walker. 2004. 《鸟类生产力与存活监测（MAPS）项目的方法学考量》，《鸟类学研究》：28–45. 该文件包含的字段说明如下： - `sci_name`：物种学名 - `common_name`：物种通用名 - `sp_id`：数值型物种ID - `cn_id`：数值型物种/站点ID - `station_id`：数值型环志站点ID - `lat`：环志站点纬度 - `lng`：环志站点经度 - `log_mass`：个体鸟类体重的对数转换值 - `log_wing`：个体鸟类未拉直翼弦长度的对数转换值 ### consensus_tree-2025-01-10.rds 本研究所用物种的共识系统发育树，格式为R语言的`phylo`类，可通过`ape`包在R环境中进行操作。 ### cv_data_covs-2025-01-08.rds 该文件包含的字段说明如下： - `trait`：对应研究性状，可选值为翼长（wing）或体重（mass） - `sci_name`：物种学名 - `sp_id`：数值型物种ID - `station_id`：数值型环志站点ID - `cv_within_post_mean`：各物种种/站点的种群内变异（变异系数，CV）的后验均值 - `cv_within_post_sd`：各物种种/站点的种群内变异（CV）的后验标准差 - `cv_within_among_sp_post_mean`：物种种水平种群内变异（CV）的后验均值 - `cv_within_among_sp_post_sd`：物种种水平种群内变异（CV）的后验标准差 - `lat`：环志站点纬度 - `lng`：环志站点经度 - `distance_edge_km_buffer10`：距离物种分布边界的距离（单位：千米，缓冲区半径10km） - `DHI_spatial_var_10km`：10km尺度下DHI的空间变异 - `DHI_temporal_var_10km`：10km尺度下DHI的时间变异 - `migration_dist_km`：物种迁徙距离（单位：千米） - `range_size_km2`：物种分布区面积（单位：平方千米） - `GenLength`：物种世代时长（即世代时间） - `HWI`：悬翼指数（Hang Wing Index）