Immune activation influences the trade-off between thermoregulation and shelter use

George, Todd; Jodrey, Alicia; Stahlschmidt, Zachary R.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.05.003

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Thus, the need to save energy during nights may be decisive for the outcome of the trade-off between predation risk and need for thermoregulation (cf. Nord et al 2014 ; Todd et al 2016 ) in females tending enlarged broods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The use of the nest for parental roosting and thermal consequences of the nest for nestlings and parents

Nilsson

Nord

2017

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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At temperate latitudes, altricial birds and their nestlings need to handle night temperatures well below thermoneutrality during the breeding season. Thus, energy costs of thermoregulation might constrain nestling growth, and low nocturnal temperatures might require resources that parents could otherwise have invested into nestlings during the day. To manipulate parental work rate, we performed brood size manipulations in breeding marsh tits (Poecile palustris). Nest box temperatures were always well above ambient temperature and increased with increasing brood size. In line with predictions, a large majority of females (but no males) made use of this benign environment for roosting. Furthermore, females tending enlarged broods, thereby having to work harder during the day, reduced their body temperature at night. This might have reduced nocturnal energy expenditure. Our finding that a higher proportion of enlarged, as compared to control, females continued to use the nest box as roosting sites even after a simulated predation event despite increased vulnerability to predation, further highlighting the need for energy conservation in this group. High nest box attendance and reduced body temperature in brood-reduced females may indicate that these females prioritised self-maintenance by initiating other costly physiological adjustments, e.g. moult, when relieved from parental work. We suggest that the energy demand for defending homeothermy is an element of the general trade-off between current and future reproduction, i.e. between daytime investment in food provisioning and the potential short- and long-term costs of a reduction in body temperature and increased predation risk.Significance statementEven during summer at temperate latitudes, breeding birds need to use energy to maintain stable body temperature. Parents, thus, need to enter the night with sufficient body reserves to cover energy requirements for thermoregulation. As these resources could be used for feeding nestling during the day, adaptations to reduce the cost of thermoregulation would be selected for. We performed brood size manipulations, thereby increasing the need for nestling provisioning in marsh tits (Parus palustris). We found that females typically spent the night in the thermally benign environment of the nest box together with their brood. Females working hard during the day continued to roost in the nest box during the night despite an increase in the perceived risk of nest predation. Furthermore, these females reduced their body temperature at night, thereby reducing the gradient between ambient and body temperature, further reducing the cost of thermoregulation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The use of the nest for parental roosting and thermal consequences of the nest for nestlings and parents

Nilsson

Nord

2017

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…This thermal gradient encompasses the preferred temperature range for P. guttatus (267-297C; Roark and Dorcas 2000;Stahlschmidt et al 2015b). Though raised in captivity under relaxed predation pressure, study snakes retain a strong preference for shelter (e.g., they prefer shelter over nonshelter 195% of the time; Todd et al 2016). Thus, to mimic a cool refuge similar to those found in a natural environment (e.g., a subterranean burrow), a folded newspaper was placed at the cool end of each enclosure.…”

Section: Study Species and Husbandrymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Simulated Heat Wave Has Diverse Effects on Immune Function and Oxidative Physiology in the Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttatus)

Stahlschmidt

French

Ahn

et al. 2017

Physiological and Biochemical Zoology

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Animals will continue to encounter increasingly warm environments, including more frequent and intense heat waves. Yet the physiological consequences of heat waves remain equivocal, potentially because of variation in adaptive plasticity (reversible acclimation) and/or aspects of experimental design. Thus, we measured a suite of physiological variables in the corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus) after exposure to field-parameterized, fluctuating temperature regimes (moderate temperature and heat wave treatments) to address two hypotheses: (1) a heat wave causes physiological stress, and (2) thermal performance of immune function exhibits adaptive plasticity in response to a heat wave. We found little support for our first hypothesis because a simulated heat wave had a negative effect on body mass, but it also reduced oxidative damage and did not affect peak performance of three immune metrics. Likewise, we found only partial support for our second hypothesis. After exposure to a simulated heat wave, P. guttatus exhibited greater performance breadth and reduced temperature specialization (the standardized difference between peak performance and performance breadth) for only one of three immune metrics and did so in a sex-dependent manner. Further, a simulated heat wave did not elicit greater performance of any immune metric at higher temperatures. Yet a heat wave likely reduced innate immune function in P. guttatus because each metric of innate immune performance in this species (as in most vertebrates) was lower at elevated temperatures. Together with previous research, our study indicates that a heat wave may have complex, modest, and even positive physiological effects in some taxa.

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“…However, there are likely costs of behavioural fever that might be balanced against its benefits (Lochmiller & Deerenberg, ; Sheldon & Verhulst, ). For example, behavioural fever can increase predation risk in ectothermic hosts if it requires hosts to increase activity or leave refugia (Bundey et al, ; Han et al, ; Otti, Gantenbein‐Ritter, Jacot, & Brinkhof, ; Parris et al, ; Todd, Jodrey, Jodrey, & Stahlschmidt, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioural fever reduces ranaviral infection in toads

et al. 2019

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Host behaviour is known to influence disease dynamics. Additionally, hosts often change their behaviours in response to pathogen detection to resist and avoid disease. The capacity of wildlife populations to respond to pathogens using behavioural plasticity is critical for reducing the impacts of disease outbreaks. However, there is limited information regarding the ability of ectothermic vertebrates to resist diseases via behavioural plasticity. Here, we experimentally examine the effect of host behaviour on ranaviral infections, which affect at least 175 species of ectothermic vertebrates. We placed metamorphic (temporal block 1) or adult (block 2) southern toads (Anaxyrus terrestris) in thermal gradients, tested their temperature preferences before and after oral inoculation by measuring individual‐level body temperature over time, and measured ranaviral loads of viral‐exposed individuals. We found significant individual‐level variation in temperature preference and evidence for behavioural fever in both metamorphic and adult A. terrestris during the first 2 days after exposure. Additionally, we found that individual‐level change in temperature preference was negatively correlated with ranaviral load and a better predictor of load than average temperature preference or maximum temperature reached by an individual. In other words, an increase in baseline temperature preference was more important than simply reaching an absolute temperature. These results suggest that behavioural fever is an effective mechanism for resisting ranaviral infections. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Immune activation influences the trade-off between thermoregulation and shelter use

Cited by 17 publications

References 75 publications

The use of the nest for parental roosting and thermal consequences of the nest for nestlings and parents

The use of the nest for parental roosting and thermal consequences of the nest for nestlings and parents

A Simulated Heat Wave Has Diverse Effects on Immune Function and Oxidative Physiology in the Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttatus)

Behavioural fever reduces ranaviral infection in toads

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