Metabolic Rates Predict Baseline Corticosterone and Reproductive Output in a Free-Living Passerine

Jimeno, Blanca; Prichard, Mackenzie R.; Landry, Devin W; Wolf, Cole J.; Larkin, Beau; Cheviron, Zachary A.; Breuner, Creagh W.

doi:10.1093/iob/obaa030

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…By providing a more mechanistic description of the link between temperature, body size and metabolism, biophysical models unravelled an association between baseline GC variation and ambient temperature driven by variation in microclimatic conditions and thermoregulatory capacity. These results add up to the increasing body of research showing a positive association between GCs and energy expenditure in captive and free-living species (Beerling et al, 2011;Jimeno et al, 2018Jimeno et al, , 2020Welcker et al, 2015), by showing this association across species on a broad geographical scale.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Biophysical models unravel associations between glucocorticoids and thermoregulatory costs across avian species

Rubalcaba

Jimeno

2021

Functional Ecology

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1. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are metabolic hormones that regulate physiological and behavioural responses to environmental change and mediate homeostasis maintenance in vertebrates. Despite the assumption that GCs covary with energy metabolism, we yet lack a mechanistic understanding of how environmental factors such as temperature modulate GC variation through their effect on organismal energy balance. In particular, the mechanisms linking temperature-dependent metabolic rate and GCs at broad spatial scales and across species remain poorly investigated.2. Here we used biophysical models to calculate thermoregulatory costs (i.e. the amount of heat required to keep body temperature in homeostasis) of freeliving birds as a function of environmental conditions, body size, shape and insulating layer of feathers. We then investigated the link between ambient temperature, cost of thermoregulation and baseline plasma GC concentrations in a comparative study including GC data from 94 bird species from HormoneBase.3. We found a significant, positive association between thermoregulatory costs and baseline GC concentrations. Interestingly, models including thermoregulatory costs better explained GC variation when compared to those including ambient temperature as a predictor variable. This result suggests that body size and shape fundamentally modulate energy requirements for thermoregulation and thereby GC concentrations in the wild. 4. By providing a mechanistic description of the link between ambient temperature and thermoregulatory costs, biophysical models provide a tool to predict the impact of environmental conditions on energy metabolism. Our work demonstrates that differences in thermoregulation modulate variation in GC concentrations across a broad climatic gradient.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Biophysical models unravel associations between glucocorticoids and thermoregulatory costs across avian species

Rubalcaba

Jimeno

2021

Functional Ecology

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“…A dampened stress response in young altricial chicks is thought to minimize the costs of bearing elevated corticosterone levels [slower growth, altered immunity, etc. ; Kitaysky et al (2003) and Martin et al (2005)], but a functional HPA axis may be necessary to activate metabolic functions (Jimeno et al, 2018(Jimeno et al, , 2020, which is crucial in precocial species and in a few altricial species living under extreme weather conditions such as the snow petrel. This could explain our results because snow petrel chicks can be left unattended by their parents at a very young age .…”

Section: Ontogeny Of the Corticosterone Stress Response During The Po...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ontogeny and individual heterogeneity of the corticosterone stress response in a wild altricial seabird, the snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea)

et al. 2022

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In the current context of global change, there is evidence of a large inter-individual variability in the way animals physiologically respond to anthropogenic changes. In that context, the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis and the corticosterone stress response are of primary importance because they are thought to govern the ability of individuals to adjust to stress. Several studies have reported that this stress response is variable among adults and they have successfully linked this variability with abiotic and biotic factors. However, the inter-individual variability of the glucocorticoid stress response has rarely been examined during the developmental phase in wild vertebrates, and its potential ecological determinants remain unclear. In this study, we examined the ontogeny of the corticosterone stress response in an altricial seabird species (i.e., how corticosterone levels increase in response to a standardized stress protocol), the Snow petrel. We reported a strong heterogeneity of the corticosterone stress response at all ages in snow petrel chicks (11-, 20-, and 37-days old chicks). Although the magnitude of this corticosterone stress response decreases with the age of the chick, we also found that this corticosterone stress response was repeatable throughout the post-hatching developmental period (repeatability: r > 0.50 for stress-induced corticosterone levels after a 30-min restraint). Importantly, this glucocorticoid stress response was negatively associated with the body condition of the chicks (i.e., mass corrected for body size), and previous exposure to sampling was associated with a dampened corticosterone stress response. However, we did not find any link between parental traits (parental condition or parental corticosterone stress response), nest quality, hatching date, and the chick’s corticosterone stress response. Our study suggests that the corticosterone stress response is a consistent individual trait that is affected to some extent by post-natal conditions, and which differs among individuals very early in life.

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“…Indeed, increased baseline CORT levels have previously been associated with higher incubation commitment (Ouyang et al, 2013) and nestling quality (Bonier et al, 2011; Rivers et al, 2017). Elevated CORT levels may also reflect the higher allostatic load (Tinbergen & Williams, 2002; Williams, 1996) or metabolic cost (Jimeno et al, 2020) of incubating a larger clutch and maintaining an optimal incubation temperature for the eggs (Erikstad & Tveraa, 1995). Yet, despite its important role in the mobilisation of stored energy reserves (Harris, 2020; Landys et al, 2006; Sapolsky et al, 2000), we did not detect any association between female baseline CORT and body condition, a proxy of energy reserves.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breeding under pressure: Corticosterone is associated with reproductive investment under fluctuating predation risk in a long‐lived sea duck

Mohring,

Öst,

Jaatinen

et al. 2023

Functional Ecology

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Phenotypic plasticity may enable individuals to cope with predictable and unpredictable environments during their life‐cycle. In that context, studying glucocorticoids—corticosterone (CORT) in birds—is relevant because of their primary role in allostasis. Higher baseline CORT levels are classically associated with environmental constraints and lower fitness (the CORT‐fitness hypothesis). However, in some environments, higher baseline CORT levels can promote reproduction, therefore being associated with higher fitness (the CORT‐adaptation hypothesis). These two hypotheses have been tested in multiple systems but rarely in a context of fluctuating predation threat. We used a long‐term individual‐based monitoring of baseline CORT levels in female common eiders Somateria mollissima (nCORT = 1537; nindividual = 790; 2009–2022) to disentangle the context‐dependent links between environmental conditions, CORT and fitness. Importantly, the study population has been facing a drastic increase in predation pressure over the past decades, linked to the recovery of the white‐tailed eagle Haliaeetus albicilla. Additionally, eiders breed on open or forested islands, further affecting adult and nest predation risk. This system allowed us to disentangle the relative contributions of within‐ and among‐individual variation in baseline CORT levels under predation. Supporting the CORT‐adaptation hypothesis, baseline CORT levels were positively associated with reproductive investment (clutch size), age and hatching success. By partitioning within‐ and among‐individual effects, we showed that at the individual level, CORT flexibly increased with clutch size and age. Females displaying higher CORT levels were more successful, suggesting a link between CORT and individual quality. At both the population and individual levels, baseline CORT levels decreased over the study period. This decrease was correlated with an increase in predation risk. Females had reduced baseline CORT when nesting under high eagle abundance or adult predation risk (within‐individual effect). Interestingly, apparent plasticity towards adult predation risk was only observed on open islands, likely reflecting habitat‐dependent strategies. Consistent with the CORT‐adaptation hypothesis, we show that changes in predation regime not only correlate with changes in reproductive investment, but also with rapid plastic adjustment of glucocorticoid levels and therefore individual strategies to cope with predation risk. Given the correlative nature of our study, we encourage further experimental studies testing for a causal relationship between predation and corticosterone levels. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Metabolic Rates Predict Baseline Corticosterone and Reproductive Output in a Free-Living Passerine

Cited by 12 publications

References 74 publications

Biophysical models unravel associations between glucocorticoids and thermoregulatory costs across avian species

Biophysical models unravel associations between glucocorticoids and thermoregulatory costs across avian species

Ontogeny and individual heterogeneity of the corticosterone stress response in a wild altricial seabird, the snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea)

Breeding under pressure: Corticosterone is associated with reproductive investment under fluctuating predation risk in a long‐lived sea duck

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