How Do Climate Parameters Affect The Expression Of Social Organizations Of Tibetan Ground Tits?

Social organization refers to a kind of group organization in which individuals of the same species interact with each other and live together.These include cooperative breeding and extra-pair paternity.Cooperative breeding refers to the care provided by two or more sexually mature individuals to their offspring.Extra-pair paternity refers to the phenomenon that in some social monogamous birds,a female copulate with males rather than her social mate and produce extra-pair offspring.Climatic factors are important factors affecting the expression of these social organizations,because climate,especially temperature and precipitation,can directly or through food affect the survival rate of individuals and the turnover rate of the population,thus affecting the occurrence of social organizations.Therefore,studying the relationship between climate factors and social organization expression is a basic aspect of understanding the evolution of social behavior.Ground tits is a unique species on the Tibetan plateau.The geographical variation of temperature and precipitation results in a change in the proportion of the social organization of the ground tits.In this paper,the relationship between social organization expression and temperature and precipitation was studied by using the data of cooperative breeding and extra-pair paternity occurrence in 21 study sites of ground tits on the Tibetan plateau.The results are as follows:(1)The statistical analysis of the influence of temperature and precipitation on the proportions of nests with helpers shows that there is a significant negative correlation between the proportions of nests with helpers and the total precipitation in the spring before the breeding season,there is no significant correlation between the proportion of nests with helpers and the quarterly average temperature of breeding season a year ago;(2)The statistical analysis of the influence of temperature and precipitation on the proportions of EPP showed that there is a significant positive correlation between the proportions of nests with extra-pair paternity and the average spring temperature before the breeding season,there is no significant correlation between the proportions of nests with extra-pair paternity and the quarterly total precipitation of breeding season a year ago;There is a significant positive correlation between the proportions of nests with extra-pair offspring and the average spring temperature before the breeding season,there is no significant correlation between the proportions of nests with extra-pair offspring and the quarterly total precipitation of breeding season a year ago.The results of this study provide a qualitative analysis of the relationship between climate and cooperative breeding of ground tits,and at the same time provide a possibility to better explain the occurrence of cooperative breeding in the future.