Assessing baseline stress physiology as an integrator of environmental quality in a wild avian population: Implications for use as a conservation biomarker

Madliger, Christine L.; Semeniuk, Christina A.D.; Harris, Christopher M.; Love, Oliver P.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2015.10.021

Cited by 34 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Previous efforts to characterize GC-environment relationships have produced mixed results, with some studies describing strong correlations (Davies et al 2013, Ozella et al 2017) and others reporting weak or no relationships (Corlatti et al 2014, Crespi et al 2015, Madliger et al 2015. This variability in outcomes raises questions regarding the circumstances under which organisms will display strong, consistent physiological responses to environmental conditions.…”

Section: Glucocorticoids As Bioindicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glucocorticoid–environment relationships align with responses to environmental change in two co‐occurring congeners

Hammond

Palme

Lacey

2018

Ecological Applications

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As more species undergo range shifts in response to climate change, it is increasingly important to understand the factors that determine an organism's realized niche. Physiological limits imposed by abiotic factors constrain the distributions of many species. Because glucocorticoids are essential to the maintenance of physiological homeostasis, identifying glucocorticoid-environment relationships may generate critical insights into both limits on species distributions and potential responses to environmental change. We explored relationships between variability in baseline glucocorticoids and sensitivity to environmental conditions in two chipmunk species characterized by divergent patterns of spatial, genetic, and morphological change over the past century. Specifically, we investigated whether the alpine chipmunk (Tamias alpinus), which has undergone pronounced changes, displays greater glucocorticoid sensitivity to environmental parameters than the lodgepole chipmunk (T. speciosus), which has exhibited little change over the same interval. From 2013 to 2015, we collected environmental data and fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) samples from these species. Using generalized linear mixed models and a model averaging approach, we examined the impacts of environmental and individual phenotypic parameters on FGMs. We found pronounced interspecific differences, with environmental parameters being better predictors of FGMs in T. alpinus. FGMs in this species were particularly elevated in less climatically suitable habitats and in areas with higher maximum daily temperatures. Individual phenotypic traits were not predictive of FGMs in T. alpinus, although they were highly predictive for T. speciosus. Collectively, these findings support the hypothesis that T. alpinus is more sensitive to environmental change. More generally, our results suggest that both phenotypic attributes and environmental conditions contribute to FGM responses but that the relative contributions of these factors differ among taxa, including among closely related species. Finally, our analyses underscore the value of glucocorticoids as bioindicators of sensitivity to environmental change in species for which the factors affecting stress physiology have been assessed.

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Section: Glucocorticoids As Bioindicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glucocorticoid–environment relationships align with responses to environmental change in two co‐occurring congeners

Hammond

Palme

Lacey

2018

Ecological Applications

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“…In addition, this manipulation increased baseline GCs over reproduction and led to the clipped group having higher average levels of GCs compared to control birds at the nestling provisioning stage in our population (Madliger et al. ). We performed this manipulation at the late incubation stage, immediately following acquisition of the first blood sample.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…, Madliger et al. ) and lower body condition compared to control birds (Ardia and Clotfelter , Patterson et al. ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our sampling protocol has been described and supported for use in Tree Swallows in detail elsewhere (Madliger et al. ). Briefly, we calculated the average insect (dry) biomass (as per Hussell and Quinney ) that was available over the most demanding stage of the nestling provisioning period (day 5–10; McCarty ) for each individual as our measure of food availability for subsequent analyses.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2011, we used a feather clipping manipulation to decrease foraging profitability (Winkler and Allen ) and therefore simulate an unexpected decline in habitat quality in the context of food availability (Madliger et al. ). We clipped four flight feathers at the base of the feather on each wing (i.e., every other primary flight feather) of 33 females (Winkler and Allen , Ardia and Clotfelter ; control, n = 38).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conservation implications of a lack of relationship between baseline glucocorticoids and fitness in a wild passerine

Madliger

Love

2016

Ecological Applications

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The application of physiological measures to conservation monitoring has been gaining momentum and, while a suite of physiological traits are available to ascertain disturbance and condition in wildlife populations, glucocorticoids (i.e., GCs; cortisol and corticosterone) are the most heavily employed. The interpretation of GC levels as sensitive indicators of population change necessitates that GCs and metrics of population persistence are linked. However, the relationship between GCs and fitness may be highly context-dependent, changing direction, or significance, depending on the GC measure, fitness metric, life history stage, or other intrinsic and extrinsic contexts considered. We examined the relationship between baseline plasma corticosterone (CORT) levels measured at two periods of the breeding season and three metrics of fitness (offspring quality, reproductive output, and adult survival) in female Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Specifically, we investigated whether (1) a relationship between baseline CORT metrics and fitness exists in our population, (2) whether the inclusion of energetic contexts, such as food availability, reproductive investment, or body mass, could alter or improve the strength of the relationship between CORT and fitness, and (3) whether energetic contexts could better predict fitness compared to CORT metrics. Importantly, we investigated these relationships in both natural conditions and under an experimental manipulation of foraging profitability (feather clipping) to determine the influence of an environmental constraint on GC-fitness relationships. We found a lack of relationship between baseline CORT and both short- and long-term metrics of fitness in control and clipped birds. In contrast, loss in body mass over reproduction positively predicted reproductive output (number of chicks leaving the nest) in control birds; however, the relationship was characterized by a low R (5%), limiting the predictive capacity, and therefore the application potential, of such a measure in a conservation setting. Our results stress the importance of ground-truthing GC-fitness relationships and indicate that baseline GCs will likely not be easily employed as conservation biomarkers across some species and life history stages. Given the accumulating evidence of temporally dynamic, inconsistent, and context-dependent GC-fitness relationships, placing effort towards directly measuring fitness traits, rather than plasma GC levels, will likely be more worthwhile for many conservation endeavours.

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Wildfire as a natural stressor and its effect on female phenotype and ornament development

Weiss

Brower

2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Controlled low-intensity fires are commonly used in ecosystem management for both habitat restoration and wildfire management. Animals in those ecosystems may respond to fire by shifting energy allocation away from reproduction and growth, and toward maintenance. Stress-induced shifts in energy allocation may affect the expression of condition-dependent sexual signals, which are sensitive to energetic and physiological trade-offs mediated by glucocorticoids. Here, we examine the effect of fire on ornament expression, corticosterone, and other phenotypic traits in a population of striped plateau lizards, Sceloporus virgatus, affected by the Horseshoe 2 Fire in the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona, USA. The condition-dependent female ornament was significantly smaller the month following the fire than 2 years prior and was both smaller and less orange on the burned site relative to a nearby unburned site. These patterns are similar to those found in a previous experimental study examining the response of the ornament to corticosterone manipulations. Yet, in the current study, corticosterone levels were not different in lizards on the burned and unburned sites.Perhaps glucocorticoid levels already returned to baseline, or do not adequately track environmental change. Females tended to be smaller and lighter on the burned site than the unburned site; however, the year after the fire, body condition was higher for females on the burned site, indicating a rapid recovery and potential long-term benefits in response to low-intensity fires in this fire-adapted ecosystem. We found that the lizards adjusted energy allocation away from sexual signaling and growth in response to low-intensity fires. As fires and fire management are likely to increase in response to changing fire regimes across the globe, it will be important to consider behavioral and physiological responses of impacted species, as well as population-, community-, and ecosystem-level responses.

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Assessing baseline stress physiology as an integrator of environmental quality in a wild avian population: Implications for use as a conservation biomarker

Cited by 34 publications

References 89 publications

Glucocorticoid–environment relationships align with responses to environmental change in two co‐occurring congeners

Glucocorticoid–environment relationships align with responses to environmental change in two co‐occurring congeners

Conservation implications of a lack of relationship between baseline glucocorticoids and fitness in a wild passerine

Wildfire as a natural stressor and its effect on female phenotype and ornament development

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