Data from: Independence among physiological traits suggests flexibility in the face of ecological demands on phenotypes ...

• Main Authors: Buehler, Deborah M., Vézina, Francois, Goymann, Wolfgang, Schwabl, Ingrid, Versteegh, Maaike, Tieleman, B. Irene, Piersma, Theunis
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2012
• Subjects: Calidris canutus; Evolutionary physiology; Red Knot
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4q6f1; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.4q6f1

Phenotypic flexibility allows animals to adjust their physiology to diverse environmental conditions encountered over the year. Examining how these varying traits covary gives insights into potential constraints or freedoms that may shape evolutionary trajectories. In this study we examined relationships among hematocrit, baseline corticosterone concentration, constitutive immune function and basal metabolic rate in red knot Calidris canutus islandica individuals subjected to experimentally manipulated temperature treatments over an entire annual cycle. If covariation among traits is constrained, we predict consistent covariation within and among individuals. We further predict consistent correlations between physiological and metabolic traits if constraints underlie species level patterns found along the slow-fast pace-of-life continuum. We found no consistent correlations among hematocrit, baseline corticosterone concentration, immune function and basal metabolic rate either within or among individuals. ... : Physiological dataPhysiological data taken from individual birds over an annual cycle. The birds were part of a year long experiment and this file contains experimental and temporal categories as well as physiological variables.Buehleretal2012JEBdataset.xls ...