Scrutinizing assortative mating in birds

PLoS Biology
Daiping WangBart Kempenaers

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 Specifically, the effect size decreased by 42% when we used previously unpublished data from nine long-term field studies, i.e., data free of reporting and publication bias (r = 0.103, 95% CI 0.074-0.132, eight species, 16,611 pairs).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 assortat...Continue Reading

Associated Datasets

Feb 11, 2019·Renée A. DuckworthLynna Marie Kiere

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Citations

Dec 7, 2020·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Niels J DingemanseBenedikt Holtmann
Jan 18, 2021·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Amelia A MunsonAndrew Sih
Feb 23, 2021·Ecology Letters·Rafael Rios MouraGustavo S Requena
Jul 8, 2021·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·Jordan S Martin, Adrian V Jaeggi
Jul 28, 2021·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·Benedikt HoltmannShinichi Nakagawa
Nov 24, 2021·Biology Letters·Thomas M M VersluysVincent Savolainen

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