Physiological stress levels predict survival probabilities in wild rabbits

Cabezas, Sonia; Blas, Julio; Marchant, Tracy A.; Moreno, Sacramento

doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2006.11.004

Cited by 161 publications

(143 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Recent studies in wild populations of mammals, birds, and reptiles have reported associations between baseline (18) or chronic (6, 7) GC levels and survival. However, this association is ultimately confounded by differential exposure to stressors among individuals, affecting circulating GC levels, or relates to short-term survival (7). In contrast, our results relate long-term survival and recruitment to the nature of an individual's physiological response to a standardized source of stress.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 63%

Stress response during development predicts fitness in a wild, long lived vertebrate

Blas

Bortolotti

Tella

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

299

222

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Short-term elevation of circulating glucocorticosteroids (GCs) in vertebrates facilitates the adoption of a distinct emergency life history state, which allows individuals to cope with perturbations and recover homeostasis at the expense of temporarily suppressing nonessential activities. Although GC responses are viewed as a major evolutionary mechanism to maximize fitness through stress management, phenotypic variability exists within animal populations, and it remains unclear whether interindividual differences in stress physiology can explain variance in unequivocal components of fitness. We show that the magnitude of the adrenocortical response to a standardized perturbation during development is negatively related to survival and recruitment in a wild population of long lived birds. Our results provide empirical evidence for a link between stress response, not exposure to stressors, and fitness in a vertebrate under natural conditions. Recent studies suggest that variability in the adrenocortical response to stress may be maintained if high and low GC responders represent alternative coping strategies, with differential adaptive value depending on environmental conditions. Increased fitness among low GC responders, having a proactive personality, is predicted under elevated population density and availability of food resources, conditions that characterize our study population.animal personality ͉ corticosterone ͉ glucocorticosteroids ͉ reproduction ͉ survival E xposure to environmental perturbations constitutes a major selective force in natural populations. Animals have evolved behavioral and physiological strategies to avoid the deleterious effects of stressors, and among vertebrates, the adrenocortical response is one of the most conserved physiological mechanisms aimed at this end (1-3). In response to modifying factors (e.g., decreased food resources, predation, harsh weather), vertebrates activate the hypothalamous-pituitary-adrenal axis, which triggers a rapid release of glucocorticosteroids (GCs) from the adrenal glands into the bloodstream (4). Elevations of circulating GCs, in turn, redirect individuals into a distinct emergency life history state (3) with changes in physiology and behavior (e.g., increased gluconeogenesis and mobilization of fat stores, suppressed territorial and reproductive behavior, irruptive migration; refs. 2 and 4), aimed at coping with the perturbation and recovering homeostasis at the expense of temporarily suppressing nonessential activities. The quantification of circulating GC titers has become a useful tool in psychology, animal husbandry, and conservation biology because elevations of plasma levels constitute a physiological marker of exposure to stress (e.g., refs. 5-7), and the latter has deleterious effects on fitness. However, even within animal populations exposed to constant environments there is a strong interindividual variability in the adrenocortical response to standardized stressors (8-10), and it remains unknown whether such natural variability exerts ...

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 63%

Stress response during development predicts fitness in a wild, long lived vertebrate

Blas

Bortolotti

Tella

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

299

222

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…the corticosteronefitness hypothesis [145], through infertility, impaired resistance to disease and inhibition of growth [49,84]. In contrast, other studies suggest that elevated corticosterone promotes adaptive advantages to the individual forming the corticosterone-adaptation hypothesis, [131,146]. Experimental manipulations of corticosterone reveal the complexity of the relationship between corticosterone and fitness.…”

Section: Hormonal Effects On Components Of Fitnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some years, exogenous corticosterone implants may have a positive effect on total clutch mass and survivorship in females and a negative effect in others [147]. These differences could be explained by a quadratic relationship between corticosterone and fitness [146]. A reduced corticosterone level may indicate acclimatization allowing individuals to maintain good body condition and will not be sufficient to produce a stress-mediated phenotype to cope with a novel environment and consequently suffer lower survival.…”

Section: Hormonal Effects On Components Of Fitnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hormonally mediated maternal effects, individual strategy and global change

Meylan¹,

Miles

Clobert

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

101

108

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A challenge to ecologists and evolutionary biologists is predicting organismal responses to the anticipated changes to global ecosystems through climate change. Most evidence suggests that short-term global change may involve increasing occurrences of extreme events, therefore the immediate response of individuals will be determined by physiological capacities and life-history adaptations to cope with extreme environmental conditions. Here, we consider the role of hormones and maternal effects in determining the persistence of species in altered environments. Hormones, specifically steroids, are critical for patterning the behaviour and morphology of parents and their offspring. Hence, steroids have a pervasive influence on multiple aspects of the offspring phenotype over its lifespan. Stress hormones, e.g. glucocorticoids, modulate and perturb phenotypes both early in development and later into adulthood. Females exposed to abiotic stressors during reproduction may alter the phenotypes by manipulation of hormones to the embryos. Thus, hormone-mediated maternal effects, which generate phenotypic plasticity, may be one avenue for coping with global change. Variation in exposure to hormones during development influences both the propensity to disperse, which alters metapopulation dynamics, and population dynamics, by affecting either recruitment to the population or subsequent life-history characteristics of the offspring. We suggest that hormones may be an informative index to the potential for populations to adapt to changing environments.

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“…Cortisol is usually determined in samples of blood (Szeto et al, 2004;de Prada et al, 2007;Cabezas et al, 2007), faeces (Szeto et al, 2004), urine (Walker et al, 2007), milk (Gygax et al, 2006) and saliva (Negrao et al, 2004). Cortisol measurements over a longer period of time, weeks or months, can be taken in hair samples.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Hair cortisol levels determined at different body sites in the New Zealand White rabbit

et al. 2012

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This study was designed to determine hair cortisol levels in the New Zealand White (NZW) rabbit and to examine possible differences in the cortisol levels of hair samples collected from different body regions in stable environmental conditions. The experiment was performed on eight 18 month-old female NZW rabbits. All animals were shaved to collect hair samples from 26 different body regions. Hair cortisol levels were determined by the RIA method. The mean hair cortisol concentration for the 26 samples in the 8 animals was 2.12±0.05 pg/mg (mean±standard error). This study reveals individual hair cortisol distributions in the 8 animals (P<0.001) and no statistical differences (P>0.05) in hair cortisol levels among the different body sites in each of the animals.

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Physiological stress levels predict survival probabilities in wild rabbits

Cited by 161 publications

References 31 publications

Stress response during development predicts fitness in a wild, long lived vertebrate

Stress response during development predicts fitness in a wild, long lived vertebrate

Hormonally mediated maternal effects, individual strategy and global change

Hair cortisol levels determined at different body sites in the New Zealand White rabbit

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