Submission for Ecology Letters; special issue Ecological & Evolutionary Insights From Very Long-Term Studies
TITLE: Causes and consequences of divorce in a long-lived socially monogamous bird
AUTHORS
Frigg J. D. Speelman1,2; f.j.d.speelman@rug.nl
Terry Burke3; t.a.burke@sheffield.ac.uk
Jan Komdeur1; j.komdeur@rug.nl
David S. Richardson4,5; david.richardson@uea.ac.uk
Hannah. L. Dugdale1; h.l.dugdale@rug.nl
AFFILIATIONS
  1. University of Groningen, Groningen Institute of Evolutionary Life Sciences, The Netherlands
  2. Macquarie University, School of Biological Sciences, Sydney, Australia
  3. University of Sheffield, School of Biosciences, Sheffield, UK
  4. University of East Anglia, Biological Sciences, Norwich, UK
  5. Nature Seychelles, Mahé, Republic of Seychelles
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
FJDS and HLD conceived the study design and methodology, with input from DSR. FJDS performed the analyses, with input from HLD. FJDS wrote the manuscript, with input from HLD, DSR and JK. DSR organised (and with many others - see acknowledgments) undertook fieldwork. Molecular parentage assignment methods were developed and undertaken by DSR and HLD. HLD, DSR, JK, and TB managed the long-term Seychelles warbler study system and database including gaining the relevant funding. All authors gave final approval for submission.
DATA ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
Data and code are available on Figshare. For the reviewing process, this following link can be used to access the data: https://figshare.com/s/484c4a7293eda21275d0
Once the manuscript is accepted for publication, data will be made publicly accessible with the following DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.25033811
RUNNING TITLE
Divorce in a long-lived bird
KEYWORDS
Seychelles warbler, Acrocephalus sechellensis , mate fidelity, mate switching, widowing, partnerships, social monogamy, reproductive success, age, sex-specific
WORD COUNT
Abstract: 150
Main text: 4999
References: 72
3 figures, 3 tables, 0 text boxes
CORRESPONDING AUTHORS
Frigg J.D. Speelman
fjdspeelman@gmail.com
+61428518204
Hannah L. Dugdale
h.l.dugdale@rug.nl
+31 50 36 39683
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the Seychelles Bureau of Standards and the Department of Environment for fieldwork permission and permits for the export of samples. We are also grateful to Nature Seychelles for facilitating fieldwork on Cousin Island. We thank Simon C. Griffith for insightful input while conceptualising the study. We thank all the fieldworkers and technicians that contributed to the Seychelles warbler project, without them the current long-term dataset would not exist. FJDS was funded by a PhD scholarship from the University of Groningen and Macquarie University, the Lucie Burgers Foundation, Ecology Fund Grant of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and by the Dobberke grant of the Dr. J.L. Dobberke Foundation. The long-term data gathering that enabled this study was supported by various NERC grants: NE/B504106/1 to TAB and DSR, NE/I021748/1 to HLD, NE/P011284/1 to HLD and DSR, and NE/F02083X/1, NE/K005502/1 and NE/S010939/1 to DSR; as well as a NWO Rubicon 825.09.013 to HLD, NWO visitors grant 040.11.232 to JK and HLD, and NWO TOP grant 854.11.003 and NWO VICI 823.01.014 to JK.