We investigated how physiological stress in an area-sensitive old-growth forest passerine, the Eurasian treecreeper (Certhia familiaris), is associated with forest fragmentation and forest structure. We found evidence that the concentrations of plasma corticosterone in chicks were higher under poor food supply in dense, young forests than in sparse, old forests. In addition, nestlings in large forest patches had lower corticosterone levels and a better body condition than in small forest patches. In general, corticosterone levels were negatively related to body condition and survival. We also found a decrease in corticosterone levels within the breeding season, which may have been a result of an increase in food supply from the first to the second broods. Our results suggest that forest fragmentation may decrease the fitness of free-living individual treecreepers.

We manipulated the primary brood size of Eurasian treecreepers (Certhia familiaris) breeding in different sized forest patches (0.5-12.8 ha) in moderately fragmented landscapes. We examined the effects of brood size manipulation (reduced, control, enlarged) and forest patch size on physiological stress (heterophillymphocyte ratios; H/L), body condition and cell-mediated immunocompetence (phytohaemagglutinin test). Nestlings' H/L ratios were negatively related to forest patch area in control and enlarged broods, whereas no effects were found in reduced broods. The effects of forest patch area were strongest in enlarged broods, which had, in general, twofold higher H/L ratios than control and reduced broods. The elevated H/L ratios were positively related to nestling mortality and negatively correlated with bodycondition indices suggesting that the origin of stress in nestlings was mainly nutritional. Cell-mediated immunity of nestlings was not related to brood manipulation or to forest patch size. Also, the H/L ratios of adults were not related to brood manipulation or forest patch size. In addition, parental H/L ratios and body condition were not related to nestling H/L ratios. Our results suggest that during the breeding period the deleterious effects of habitat loss are seen explicitly in growing young.

No abstract

This study, based on correlative data, tests the hypothesis that infections with Eimeria spp. parasites exert a significant loss of fitness of bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) reflected in lower reproductive success and survival, declining host population densities and are associated positively with population size. The study was conducted in 20 mainland and 27 island populations in central Finland during May-September in 1999. Faecal samples showed that 28% of 767 individuals were infected with Eimeria spp. The presence of Eimeria parasites was higher in dense mainland populations than in sparsely populated islands. Eimerian infections increased during the course of the breeding season, probably as a result of the high infection rate of young individuals. Accordingly, the body masses of bank voles were negatively related to the presence of Eimeria spp. Reproductive output, as measured by the breeding probability of females and litter size, was not associated with the presence of eimerian infection. Interestingly, the body condition of the infected mothers appeared to be low. Moreover, mother's body condition was the single most important variable studied that showed a positive correlation to pup's body condition at birth. On small islands (< or =3.2 ha) that were comprehensively trapped, the mean number of Eimeria spp. in the bank vole population was negatively related to density changes of the bank vole population during the study. Our data are consistent with the idea that infection with coccidian parasites may be one of the factors responsible for declining host populations in small, isolated populations.

We studied the primary brood sex ratio of an old-growth forest passerine, the Eurasian treecreeper (Certhia familiaris), along a gradient of forest fragmentation. We found evidence that male nestlings were more costly to produce, since they suffered twofold higher nestling mortality and were larger in body size than females. Furthermore, the proportion of males in the brood was positively associated with the provisioning rate and the amount of food delivered to the nestlings. During the first broods, a high edge density and a high proportion of pine forests around the nests were related to a decreased production of males. The densities of spiders, the main food of the treecreeper, were 38% higher on spruce trunks than on pine trunks. This suggests that pine-dominated territories with female-biased broods may have contained less food during the first broods. The observation was further supported by the fact that the feeding frequencies were lower in territories with high proportions of pines. In the second broods, territories with a high forest patch density produced female-biased broods, whereas high-quality territories with a large amount of deciduous trees and mixed forests produced male-biased broods. Our results suggest that habitat quality as measured by habitat characteristics is associated with sex allocation in free-living birds.