Scrutinizing assortative mating in birds

Wang, Daiping and Forstmeier, Wolfgang and Valcu, Mihai and Dingemanse, Niels J. and Bulla, Martin and Both, Christiaan and Duckworth, Renée A. and Kiere, Lynna Marie and Karell, Patrik and Albrecht, Tomáš and Kempenaers, Bart and Jennions, Michael D. (2019) Scrutinizing assortative mating in birds. PLOS Biology, 17 (2). e3000156. ISSN 1545-7885

[thumbnail of file_id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.3000156&type=printable] Text
file_id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.3000156&type=printable - Published Version

Download (884kB)

Abstract

It is often claimed that pair bonds preferentially form between individuals that resemble one another. Such assortative mating appears to be widespread throughout the animal kingdom. Yet it is unclear whether the apparent ubiquity of assortative mating arises primarily from mate choice (“like attracts like”), which can be constrained by same-sex competition for mates; from spatial or temporal separation; or from observer, reporting, publication, or search bias. Here, based on a conventional literature search, we find compelling meta-analytical evidence for size-assortative mating in birds (r = 0.178, 95% CI 0.142–0.215, 83 species, 35,591 pairs). However, our analyses reveal that this effect vanishes gradually with increased control of confounding factors. Specifically, the effect size decreased by 42% when we used previously unpublished data from nine long-term field studies, i.e., data free of reporting and publication bias (r = 0.103, 95% CI 0.074–0.132, eight species, 16,611 pairs). Moreover, in those data, assortative mating effectively disappeared when both partners were measured by independent observers or separately in space and time (mean r = 0.018, 95% CI −0.016–0.057). Likewise, we also found no evidence for assortative mating in a direct experimental test for mutual mate choice in captive populations of Zebra finches (r = −0.020, 95% CI −0.148–0.107, 1,414 pairs). These results highlight the importance of unpublished data in generating unbiased meta-analytical conclusions and suggest that the apparent ubiquity of assortative mating reported in the literature is overestimated and may not be driven by mate choice or mating competition for preferred mates.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: STM Digital Press > Biological Science
Depositing User: Unnamed user with email support@stmdigipress.com
Date Deposited: 09 Jan 2023 10:28
Last Modified: 18 Jun 2024 07:30
URI: http://publications.articalerewriter.com/id/eprint/24

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item