An experimental test of the effect of brood size on glucocorticoid responses, parental investment, and offspring phenotype

Stress in the social context: a behavioural and eco-evolutionary perspective

The social environment is one of the primary sources of challenging stimuli that can induce a stress response in animals. It comprises both short-term and stable interactions among conspecifics (including unrelated individuals, mates, potential mates and kin). Social stress is of unique interest in the field of stress research because (1) the social domain is arguably the most complex and fluctuating component of an animal's environment; (2) stress is socially transmissible; and (3) stress can be buffered by social partners. Thus, social interactions can be both the cause and cure of stress. Here, we review the history of social stress research, and discuss social stressors and their effects on organisms across early life and adulthood. We also consider cross-generational effects. We discuss the physiological mechanisms underpinning social stressors and stress responses, as well as the potential adaptive value of responses to social stressors. Finally, we identify outstanding challenges in social stress research, and propose a framework for addressing these in future work.

Females with Increased Costs Maintain Reproductive Output: A Field Experiment in a Common Songbird

Reproduction and self-maintenance are energetically costly activities involved in classic life history trade-offs. However, few studies have measured the responses of wild organisms to simultaneous changes in reproductive and self-maintenance costs, which may have interactive effects. In free-living female Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica), we simultaneously manipulated reproductive costs (by adding or removing two nestlings) and self-maintenance costs (by attaching a ∼1 g weight in the form of a GPS tag to half of our study birds) and measured mass, immune status, blood glucose, feather growth, and reproductive output (likelihood of a second clutch, number of eggs, and time between clutches). GPS tags allowed us to analyze how movement range size affected response to brood size manipulation. Tagging altered females' immune function as evidenced by an elevated heterophil to lymphocyte (H:L) ratio, but all females were equally likely to lay more eggs. There was no evidence of interactive effects of the tagging and brood size treatment. Range size was highly variable, and birds with large ranges grew feathers more slowly, but analyzing the effect of brood size manipulation while accounting for variation in range size did not result in any physiological response. Our results support the theoretical prediction that short-lived vertebrates do face a trade-off between reproduction and self-maintenance and, when faced with increased costs, tend to preserve investment in reproduction at the expense of parental condition. This experiment also helps us to understand how movement patterns may be relevant to life history trade-offs in wild birds.

Visitation rate, but not foraging range, responds to brood size manipulation in an aerial insectivore

Abstract

Life history theory predicts that increased investment in current offspring decreases future fecundity or survival. Avian parental investment decisions have been studied either via brood size manipulation or direct manipulation of parental energetic costs (also known as handicapping). However, we have limited experimental data on the potential interactive effects of these manipulations on parent behavior. Additionally, we know little about how these manipulations affect spatial foraging behavior away from the nest. We simultaneously manipulated brood size and parental costs (via added weight in the form of a GPS tag) in wild female barn swallows (Hirundo rustica). We measured multiple aspects of parent behavior at and away from the nest while controlling for measures of weather conditions. We found no significant interactive effects of manipulated brood size and parental costs. Both sexes increased their visitation rate with brood size, but nestlings in enlarged broods grew significantly less post-brood size manipulation than those in reduced broods. Foraging range area was highly variable among GPS-tagged females but was unaffected by brood size. As such, increased visitation rate in response to brood size may be more energetically costly for far-ranging females. GPS-tagged females did not alter their visitation rate relative to un-tagged birds, but their mates had higher visitation rates. This suggests that GPS tagging may affect some unmeasured aspect of female behavior, such as prey delivery. Our findings indicate that investigation of foraging tactics alongside visitation rate is critical to understanding parental investment and the benefits and costs of reproduction.

Significance statement

Avian parental investment decisions have been studied by either brood size manipulation or direct manipulation of parental costs, but rarely both simultaneously. We simultaneously manipulated brood size and parental costs (via addition of a GPS tag) in a wild avian system, allowing us to examine interactive effects of these manipulations. Additionally, studies of parental investment often examine behaviors at the nest, but measurements of parental care behavior away from the nest are rare. Our study is unique in that we measured multiple aspects of parental care, including spatial foraging behavior tracked with GPS tags. We found no interactive effects of manipulated brood size and parental costs on visitation rate or nestling growth, and spatial foraging behavior of females was individually variable. Documenting foraging tactics alongside visitation rate is critical to understanding parental investment because the same visitation rate might be more costly for far-ranging females.

Early life parameters and personality affect oxidative status during adulthood in an altricial rodent

It is increasingly recognized that alterations of the cellular oxidative status might be an important cost underlying challenging early life conditions. For example, an increased litter size can impose challenges as the offspring will face increased competition for maternal resources. Within a litter, individuals with relatively higher starting mass typically show higher growth rates, which can lead to increased oxidative damage. We investigated the long-term consequences of these early life parameters on the oxidative status in mature mound-building mice (Mus spicilegus). Individual differences in the animals' exploration tendency were assessed by repeated open field and novel object tests. We predicted less exploratory phenotypes, which typically show a higher stress responsiveness, to be particularly susceptible to possible effects of these early life parameters on oxidative status. We quantified oxidative damage of DNA (8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine levels, 8-OHdG) and proteins (protein carbonyl content, PCC), and activities of the antioxidants catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in liver and skeletal muscle tissue. 8-OHdG levels were positively associated with CAT and SOD in both tissues, indicating that increased oxidative DNA damage was associated with an upregulation of antioxidant production. Hepatic DNA damage after maturity was increased in animals from larger litters. In less exploratory animals, DNA damage and the activity of CAT and SOD in the muscle were increased, but only in individuals with higher relative starting mass (measured on postnatal day 9). This interaction may be explained by the typically higher adrenocortical activity in less exploratory phenotypes and by the higher growth in relatively heavier pups, two factors known to increase oxidative stress. These findings contribute to enlightening the complex interplay between early life conditions, personality, and oxidative status.

An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches

Chronic traffic noise is increasingly recognised as a potential hazard to wildlife. Several songbird species have been shown to breed poorly in traffic noise exposed habitats. However, identifying whether noise is causal in this requires experimental approaches. We tested whether experimental exposure to chronic traffic noise affected parental behaviour and reproductive success in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). In a counterbalanced repeated-measures design, breeding pairs were exposed to continuous playback of one of two types of highway noise previously shown to be either neutral (control) or aversive. Parental nest attendance positively correlated with feeding effort and was higher for the aversive than the control sound and this effect was more pronounced for parents attending larger broods. However, neither noise condition affected offspring number, growth or body mass. The absence of an effect held when we combined our data with data from two other comparable studies into a meta-analysis. We discuss whether the increased nest attendance could be a compensatory strategy that alleviated detrimental noise effects on the chicks, and whether it could be caused by impaired parent-offspring or within-pair communication. Future work should test these hypotheses and investigate potential long-term costs of increased parental engagement.

Effects of artificial light at night on avian provisioning, corticosterone, and reproductive success

Artificial light at night (hereafter 'ALAN') affects 88% of the land area in Europe and almost half of the land area in the US, with even rural areas exposed to lights from agricultural and industrial buildings. To date, there have been few studies that assess the impacts of ALAN on both wildlife behavior and physiology. However, ALAN may alter energy expenditure and/or stress physiology during the breeding period, potentially reducing reproductive success and resulting in conservation implications. Here, we experimentally exposed adult female and nestling tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) to ALAN. We then measured the effects of ALAN compared to control conditions on parental behavior (provisioning rate), nestling physiology (corticosterone levels), and reproductive success (likelihood of all eggs hatching and all nestlings fledging per nest). Our results showed that ALAN-exposed females provisioned their nestlings at lower rates than control females. Although relatively weak, our results also suggested that ALAN-exposed nestlings had reduced baseline and increased stress-induced corticosterone compared to control nestlings. ALAN-exposed nestlings also showed greater negative feedback of circulating corticosterone. We found no support for our prediction that ALAN would reduce nestling body condition. Finally, we found some support for a negative effect of ALAN on the likelihood that all eggs hatched in a given nest, but not the likelihood that all nestlings fledged. Therefore, while it is possible that the behavioral and physiological changes found here result in long-term consequences, our results also suggest that direct ALAN exposure alone may not have substantially large or negative effects on tree swallows. Exposure regimes for free-living birds, such as exposure to a combination of anthropogenic disturbances (i.e. ALAN and noise pollution) or direct and indirect effects of ALAN (i.e. effects on physiology due to direct light exposure and alterations in food availability), may produce different results than those found here.

The effect of avian brood parasitism on physiological responses of host nestlings

Avian obligate brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other species that may provide care for the foreign offspring. Brood parasitism often imparts substantial fitness losses upon host nestlings when they are raised alongside the typically more competitive, larger, and older parasitic chick(s). Whereas fitness costs due to reduced host offspring survival in parasitized broods have been studied in detail, the physiological changes in host nestlings caused by parasitic nestmate(s) are less well known. We compared prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea) nestlings, a host of the nest-sharing brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater), in experimentally parasitized vs. non-parasitized broods. Our aim was to determine whether cohabitation with brood parasitic young impacted host nestling baseline corticosterone plasma concentrations, immune responses, body condition, and mortality. Corticosterone levels and body condition of host nestlings were similar between nests with or without a cowbird nestmate, whereas host immune responses were lower and nestling mortality was greater in parasitized broods, irrespective of variation in brood size or total brood mass. We detected no trade-offs of baseline corticosterone levels with either immune responses or with body condition. These results suggest that this host species' nestlings experience some adverse fitness-relevant physiological effects in parasitized broods, but are also resilient in other aspects when coping with brood parasitism.

Telomere shortening is associated with corticosterone stress response in adult barn swallows

When vertebrates face stressful events, the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis is activated, generating a rapid increase in circulating glucocorticoid (GC) stress hormones followed by a return to baseline levels. However, repeated activation of HPA axis may lead to increase in oxidative stress. One target of oxidative stress is telomeres, nucleoprotein complexes at the end of chromosomes that shorten at each cell division. The susceptibility of telomeres to oxidizing molecules has led to the hypothesis that increased GC levels boost telomere shortening, but studies on this link are scanty. We studied if, in barn swallows Hirundo rustica, changes in adult erythrocyte telomere length between 2 consecutive breeding seasons are related to corticosterone (CORT) (the main avian GC) stress response induced by a standard capture-restraint protocol. Within-individual telomere length did not significantly change between consecutive breeding seasons. Second-year individuals showed the highest increase in circulating CORT concentrations following restraint. Moreover, we found a decline in female stress response along the breeding season. In addition, telomere shortening covaried with the stress response: a delayed activation of the negative feedback loop terminating the stress response was associated with greater telomere attrition. Hence, among-individual variation in stress response may affect telomere dynamics.

Testing the developmental hypothesis of the HPA axis in a tropical passerine: Dampened corticosterone response and faster negative feedback in nestling lance-tailed manakins (Chiroxiphia lanceolata)

When vertebrates are exposed to stressors, the subsequent acute increase in glucocorticoids by the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis triggers a suite of adaptive responses, including mobilization of stored energy and repression of non-essential processes. However, chronic exposure to high concentrations of glucocorticoids can lead to metabolic dysregulation, impaired immune function, and cognitive decline. In developing young, this hormonal stress response shows considerable variation. Generally, the physiological stress response of young of precocial species is comparable to that of adults, whereas offspring of altricial species exhibit an attenuated response compared to adults. The developmental hypothesis of the HPA axis proposes that the dampened stress response in dependent offspring is an adaptive response to avoid the negative effects of elevated glucocorticoids, particularly in altricial species where young lack the ability to mitigate stressful stimuli.We aimed to test the developmental hypothesis in a tropical avian species, the lance-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia lanceolata). We predicted that nestlings of this altricial species should have a dampened corticosterone response, in both magnitude and duration, compared to that of adults. We also predicted that recently fledged hatch-year birds would display a response intermediate to that of adults and nestlings. We quantified circulating corticosterone levels in adults, recently fledged hatch-year birds, and 11-day-old nestlings using a standardized capture and restraint protocol. Nestlings showed a lower maximal corticosterone response and faster negative feedback compared to adults. Further, five post-fledging hatch-year birds showed a feedback response intermediate to those of nestlings and adults. However, we caution against generalizing about fledgling responses beyond this study due to the small sample (n = 5). Interestingly, lance-tailed manakin nestlings appear to return to baseline concentrations faster than nestlings of temperate species. These results support the developmental hypothesis of the HPA axis explaining variation in stress response. This study is the first to assess the development of the hormonal stress response in nestlings of a tropical bird, which is of interest because of our still-developing understanding of how tropical and temperate species differ physiologically. Finally, findings here underscore the importance of validating and adjusting sampling protocols that quantify nestling stress responses, as sampling timelines identified for adults may underestimate the magnitude of the nestling stress response.

Gull chicks grow faster but lose telomeres when prenatal cues mismatch the real presence of sibling competitors

During embryonic life, individuals should adjust their phenotype to the conditions that they will encounter after birth, including the social environment, if they have access to (social) cues that allow them to forecast future conditions. In birds, evidence indicates that embryos are sensitive to cues from clutch mates, but whether embryos adjust their development to cope with the expected level of sibling competition has not hitherto been investigated. To tackle this question, we performed a 'match versus mismatch' experimental design where we manipulated the presence of clutch mates (i.e. clutch size manipulation) and the real (postnatal) level of sibling competition (i.e. brood size manipulation) in the yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis). We provide evidence that the prenatal cues of sibling presence induced developmental changes (such as epigenetic profiles) that had programming effects on chick begging behaviour and growth trajectories after hatching. While receiving mismatching information favoured chick begging and growth, this came at the cost of reduced antioxidant defences and a premature loss of telomeres. Our findings highlight the role of the prenatal social environment in developmental plasticity and suggest that telomere attrition may be an important physiological cost of phenotype-environment mismatch.

Physiological predictors of reproductive performance in the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Background

It is widely assumed that variation in fitness components has a physiological basis that might underlie selection on trade-offs, but the mechanisms driving decreased survival and future fecundity remain elusive. Here, we assessed whether physiological variables are related to workload ability or immediate fitness consequences and if they mediate future survival or reproductive success. We used data on 13 physiological variables measured in 93 female European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) at two breeding stages (incubation, chick-rearing), for first-and second-broods over two years (152 observations).

Results

There was little co-variation among the physiological variables, either in incubating or chick-rearing birds, but some systematic physiological differences between the two stages. Chick-rearing birds had lower hematocrit and plasma creatine kinase but higher hemoglobin, triglyceride and uric acid levels. Only plasma corticosterone was repeatable between incubation and chick-rearing. We assessed relationships between incubation or chick-rearing physiology and measures of workload, current productivity, future fecundity or survival in a univariate manner, and found very few significant relationships. Thus, we next explored the utility of multivariate analysis (principal components analysis, Mahalanobis distance) to account for potentially complex physiological integration, but still found no clear associations.

Conclusions

This implies either that a) birds maintained physiological variables within a homeostatic range that did not affect their performance, b) there are relatively few links between physiology and performance, or, more likely, c) that the complexity of these relationships exceeds our ability to measure it. Variability in ecological context may complicate the relationship between physiology and behavior. We thus urge caution regarding the over-interpretation of isolated significant findings, based on single traits in single years, in the literature.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12983-018-0288-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Effects of experimental chronic traffic noise exposure on adult and nestling corticosterone levels, and nestling body condition in a free-living bird

Transportation noise affects urbanized, rural, and otherwise unaltered habitats. Given expanding transportation networks, alterations in the acoustic landscapes experienced by animals are likely to be pervasive and persistent (i.e. chronic). It is important to understand if chronic noise exposure alters behavior and physiology in free-living animals, as it may result in long-lasting impacts, such as reduced reproductive success. Here, we experimentally tested the effects of chronic traffic noise on baseline and stress-induced corticosterone (the primary avian glucocorticoid), parental feeding behavior, and fitness proxies in breeding tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Our results show that chronic traffic noise is related to altered corticosterone in both adult female and nestling tree swallows, suggesting that noise may be a stressor in both groups. In adult females, our results suggest that traffic noise is related to a limited ability to respond to subsequent acute stressors (i.e. reduced stress-induced corticosterone levels after handling). Further, our results show no evidence of habituation to noise during the breeding season, as the negative relationship between traffic noise and adult female stress-induced corticosterone became stronger over time. In nestlings, we found a positive relationship between traffic noise exposure and baseline corticosterone. Finally, we found a negative relationship between traffic noise and nestling body condition, despite no detectable effects of noise on nestling provisioning (e.g. parental feeding rate, or insect bolus size/composition). These results highlight the potential long-term consequences of chronic noise exposure, as increased baseline corticosterone and reduced nestling body condition in noise-exposed areas may have negative, population-level consequences.

Corticosterone levels reflect variation in metabolic rate, independent of 'stress'

Variation in glucocorticoid hormones (GCs) is often interpreted as reflecting 'stress', but this interpretation is subject of intense debate. GCs induce gluconeogenesis, and we hypothesized therefore that GC variation can be explained by changes in current and anticipated metabolic rate (MR). Alternatively, GC levels may respond to psychological 'stress' over and above its effect on metabolic rate. We tested these hypotheses in captive zebra finches, by inducing an increase in MR using a psychological stressor (noise), and compared its effect on corticosterone (CORT, the primary avian GC) with the effect induced by a decrease in ambient temperature increasing MR to a similar extent. We found the increase in CORT induced by the psychological stressor to be indistinguishable from the level expected based on the noise effect on MR. We further found that a handling and restraint stressor that increased CORT levels also resulted in increased blood glucose levels, corroborating a key assumption underlying our hypothesis. Thus, GC variation primarily reflected variation in energy expenditure, independently of psychological stress. GC levels have many downstream effects besides glucose mobilization, and we propose that these effects can be interpreted as adjustments of physiological functions to the metabolic level at which an organism operates.