The oxidative balance and stopover departure decisions in a medium- and a long-distance migrant

Eikenaar, Cas; Ostolani, Alessia; Brust, Vera; Karwinkel, Thiemo; Schmaljohann, Heiko; Isaksson, Caroline

doi:10.1186/s40462-023-00372-7

Cited by 6 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We furthermore observed significant differences in microbial killing ability as well as IgY levels among the species, which is in line with previous studies (e.g. Tieleman et al 2015;Hegemann et al 2022;Eikenaar et al 2023). Variation in immune function between species can have multiple reasons including differences in risk of infection, phylogenetic history, migration strategy etc.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Perhaps, spring migrants tend to invest their resources (energy and nutrients for fuel) more into timely arrival at the breeding site rather than in immune function compared to autumn migrants. Fewer stopovers may also mean that spring migrants have less opportunity to recover their immune function during stopover after strenuous endurance flights (Eikenaar et al 2020a;2023). Some support for a seasonal difference in immune function comes from comparing values from the current and previous studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it has been shown that endurance flight may negatively impact constitutive immune parameters in European Starlings,Sturnus vulgaris (Nebel et al 2012) as well as in Red knots,Calidris canutus (Buehler et al 2010), suggesting lower immunocompetence in birds after a migratory flight. To (partly) compensate for this, migrants are able to boost immune function during stopover (Owen & Moore, 2008), within days of arrival at a stopover site (Eikenaar et al 2020a(Eikenaar et al , 2023.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Constitutive immune function is not associated with fuel stores in spring migrating passerine birds

Ronanki,

Hegemann,

eikenaar

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Migratory birds may either upregulate their immune system during migration as they might encounter novel pathogens or downregulate their immune system as a consequence of trade-offs with the resource costs of migration. Support for the latter comes not least from a study that reports a positive correlation in autumn migrating birds between fuel stores and parameters of innate and acquired immune function, i.e., energy exhausted migrants appear to have lowered immune function. However, to our knowledge, no study has tested whether this pattern exists in spring migrating birds, which may face other trade-offs than autumn migrants. Here, we investigate if in spring there is a relationship between fuel stores and microbial killing ability, a measure of innate immune function, and total immunoglobulin (IgY), a measure of acquired immune function, in four migrating bird species: Chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs), Dunnocks (Prunella modularis), Song thrushes (Turdus philomelos) and Northern wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe). We found no correlation between fuel stores and bacterial killing ability or IgY levels in any of the species. However, there was a significant negative correlation between microbial killing ability and Julian date in Song thrushes and Northern wheatears, and between IgY levels and Julian date in Song thrushes. Sex did not affect immune function in any of the species. Our study suggests that the relationship between immune function and fuel stores may be different during spring migration compared to autumn migration. Differences in the speed of migration or pathogen pressure may result in different outcomes of the trade-off between investment in immune function and in migration among the seasons.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Constitutive immune function is not associated with fuel stores in spring migrating passerine birds

Ronanki,

Hegemann,

eikenaar

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We think this is a reasonable assumption because of the high continuous trapping effort (see below) as well as the fact that stopovers by passerines on Helgoland are typically in the range of days (e.g. Eikenaar et al, 2023).…”

Section: Study Site and Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constitutive immune function is not associated with fuel stores in spring migrating passerine birds

Ronanki,

Hegemann,

Eikenaar

2024

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Migratory birds may either upregulate their immune system during migration as they might encounter novel pathogens or downregulate their immune system as a consequence of trade‐offs with the resource costs of migration. Support for the latter comes not least from a study that reports a positive correlation in autumn migrating birds between fuel stores and parameters of innate and acquired immune function, that is, energy‐exhausted migrants appear to have lowered immune function. However, to our knowledge, no study has tested whether this pattern exists in spring migrating birds, which may face other trade‐offs than autumn migrants. Here, we investigate if in spring there is a relationship between fuel stores and microbial‐killing ability, a measure of innate immune function, and total immunoglobulin (IgY), a measure of acquired immune function, in four migrating bird species: chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs), dunnocks (Prunella modularis), song thrushes (Turdus philomelos) and northern wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe). Our findings indicate no significant correlation between fuel stores and either microbial killing ability or IgY levels when considering all species collectively. When analysing species separately, we found a significant negative correlation between fuel stores and microbial‐killing ability in chaffinches and a positive correlation between fuel stores and IgY levels in wheatears. In song thrushes, but not in any of the other species, there was a significant negative correlation between relative arrival date and microbial‐killing ability and between arrival date and IgY levels. Sex did not affect immune function in any of the species. Our study suggests that the relationship between immune function and fuel stores may be different during spring migration compared to autumn migration. Differences in the speed of migration or pathogen pressure may result in different outcomes of the resource trade‐off between investment in immune function and migration among the seasons.

show abstract

“…All data used for this paper are provided in the electronic supplementary material, file S1 in Excel format [30].…”

Section: Data Accessibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of constitutive immune function after migratory endurance flight in free-living birds

et al. 2023

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Strenuous physical activity can negatively affect constitutive innate immune function (CIF), the always present first line of defence against pathogens. CIF is non-specific, and thus vital when encountering novel pathogens. A lowered CIF likely increases the risk of infection and disease. Migratory birds engage in truly extreme physical activity during their endurance flights, however, little is known about how they deal with the negative impact this has on their immune function. By collecting both between- and within-individual data we show, for the first time, that free-flying migratory birds can recover several parameters of CIF during stopovers, which are stationary periods in between migratory flights. With this, we provide an important piece of the puzzle on how migrating birds cope with the physiological challenges they face on their biannual journeys. Furthermore, our study stresses the importance of migratory stopovers beyond fuel accumulation.

show abstract

The oxidative balance and stopover departure decisions in a medium- and a long-distance migrant

Cited by 6 publications

References 48 publications

Constitutive immune function is not associated with fuel stores in spring migrating passerine birds

Constitutive immune function is not associated with fuel stores in spring migrating passerine birds

Constitutive immune function is not associated with fuel stores in spring migrating passerine birds

Recovery of constitutive immune function after migratory endurance flight in free-living birds

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About