Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped
Abstract Individuals are unique in how they interact with and respond to their environment. Correspondingly, unpredictable challenges or environmental stressors often produce an individualized response of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis and its downstream effector cortisol. We used a f...
Published in: | Ecology and Evolution |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Wiley
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8757 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.8757 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.8757 |
id |
crwiley:10.1002/ece3.8757 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crwiley:10.1002/ece3.8757 2024-06-23T07:47:51+00:00 Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped Nagel, Rebecca Kaiser, Sylvia Stainfield, Claire Toscani, Camille Fox‐Clarke, Cameron Paijmans, Anneke J. Costa Castro, Camila Vendrami, David L. J. Forcada, Jaume Hoffman, Joseph I. British Antarctic Survey Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8757 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.8757 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.8757 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecology and Evolution volume 12, issue 3 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 journal-article 2022 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8757 2024-06-04T06:47:19Z Abstract Individuals are unique in how they interact with and respond to their environment. Correspondingly, unpredictable challenges or environmental stressors often produce an individualized response of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis and its downstream effector cortisol. We used a fully crossed, repeated measures design to investigate the factors shaping individual variation in baseline cortisol in Antarctic fur seal pups and their mothers. Saliva samples were collected from focal individuals at two breeding colonies, one with low and the other with high density, during two consecutive years of contrasting food availability. Mothers and pups were sampled concurrently at birth and shortly before weaning, while pups were additionally sampled every 20 days. We found that heritability was low for baseline cortisol, while within‐individual repeatability and among‐individual variability were high. A substantial proportion of the variation in baseline cortisol could be explained in pups and mothers by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors including sex, weight, day, season, and colony of birth. Our findings provide detailed insights into the individualization of endocrine phenotypes and their genetic and environmental drivers in a wild pinniped. Furthermore, the strong associations between cortisol and life history traits that we report in fur seals could have important implications for understanding the population dynamics of species impacted by environmental change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seal Wiley Online Library Antarctic Ecology and Evolution 12 3 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Individuals are unique in how they interact with and respond to their environment. Correspondingly, unpredictable challenges or environmental stressors often produce an individualized response of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis and its downstream effector cortisol. We used a fully crossed, repeated measures design to investigate the factors shaping individual variation in baseline cortisol in Antarctic fur seal pups and their mothers. Saliva samples were collected from focal individuals at two breeding colonies, one with low and the other with high density, during two consecutive years of contrasting food availability. Mothers and pups were sampled concurrently at birth and shortly before weaning, while pups were additionally sampled every 20 days. We found that heritability was low for baseline cortisol, while within‐individual repeatability and among‐individual variability were high. A substantial proportion of the variation in baseline cortisol could be explained in pups and mothers by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors including sex, weight, day, season, and colony of birth. Our findings provide detailed insights into the individualization of endocrine phenotypes and their genetic and environmental drivers in a wild pinniped. Furthermore, the strong associations between cortisol and life history traits that we report in fur seals could have important implications for understanding the population dynamics of species impacted by environmental change. |
author2 |
British Antarctic Survey Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nagel, Rebecca Kaiser, Sylvia Stainfield, Claire Toscani, Camille Fox‐Clarke, Cameron Paijmans, Anneke J. Costa Castro, Camila Vendrami, David L. J. Forcada, Jaume Hoffman, Joseph I. |
spellingShingle |
Nagel, Rebecca Kaiser, Sylvia Stainfield, Claire Toscani, Camille Fox‐Clarke, Cameron Paijmans, Anneke J. Costa Castro, Camila Vendrami, David L. J. Forcada, Jaume Hoffman, Joseph I. Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped |
author_facet |
Nagel, Rebecca Kaiser, Sylvia Stainfield, Claire Toscani, Camille Fox‐Clarke, Cameron Paijmans, Anneke J. Costa Castro, Camila Vendrami, David L. J. Forcada, Jaume Hoffman, Joseph I. |
author_sort |
Nagel, Rebecca |
title |
Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped |
title_short |
Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped |
title_full |
Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped |
title_fullStr |
Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped |
title_full_unstemmed |
Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped |
title_sort |
low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8757 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.8757 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.8757 |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seal |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seal |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution volume 12, issue 3 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8757 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
3 |
_version_ |
1802638070414049280 |