Links between baseline stress physiology, habitat quality, and fitness in an aerial insectivore

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Links between baseline stress physiology, habitat quality, and fitness in an aerial insectivore Christine Madliger1* and Oliver Love1 1 University of Windsor, Biological Sciences, Canada Across taxa, measures of baseline stress hormones (eg. corticosterone) are increasingly being utilized as conservation tools for the assessment of individual and/or population condition. To be an effective biomarker in this regard, baseline corticosterone (cort) levels must show a predictable relationship with fitness, the general assumption being that high levels of baseline cort are indicative of individuals with low relative fitness (recently coined the Cort-Fitness Hypothesis). However, empirical evidence for this relationship has been largely inconclusive, showing variation both within populations and within individuals across different life history stages. Through the study of breeding Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor), we investigated the relationship between baseline cort levels and reproductive success across two reproductive stages and within the context of habitat quality. We find that individual cort levels changed from the incubation stage to the nestling provisioning stage, with the direction of change being highly dependent on age. In addition, baseline cort levels predict fitness only for experienced individuals (those in their second breeding season or later). Moreover, the direction of this relationship differs based on habitat quality, showing a positive relationship in high quality habitats and a negative relationship in low quality habitats. Our results indicate that information on life history stage, age, and habitat metrics may be necessary to effectively apply stress hormones as relevant physiological indices for conservation. Acknowledgements Research support provided by NSERC, University of Windsor, Ruthven Park National Historic Site, and Haldimand Bird Observatory. Keywords: Cort-Fitness Hypothesis, Corticosterone, habitat quality, human disturbance, tree swallow Conference: NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology, Ann Arbor, United States, 13 Jul - 16 Jul, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Stress hormones Citation: Madliger C and Love O (2011). Links between baseline stress physiology, habitat quality, and fitness in an aerial insectivore. Front. Endocrinol. Conference Abstract: NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fendo.2011.04.00031 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 18 Jul 2011; Published Online: 09 Aug 2011. * Correspondence: Miss. Christine Madliger, University of Windsor, Biological Sciences, Windsor, Canada, madlige@uwindsor.ca Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Christine Madliger Oliver Love Google Christine Madliger Oliver Love Google Scholar Christine Madliger Oliver Love PubMed Christine Madliger Oliver Love Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.