| Summary: | Tese de doutoramento em Biociências, na especialidade de Ecologia, apresentada ao Departamento de Ciências da Vida da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra For long-distance migrant birds, ecological changes along the flyway and strenuous work, can unbalance immune investments and thereby increasing the vulnerability to disease and reducing survival. Despite an essential self-maintenance component, immunity comes with costs as well as benefits. At an ecological context (i.e. limited energy), trade-offs are generated between immunity and other competing physiological components, leading to variations on immune response across time (annual-cycle) and space (different environments). Moreover, immune responses also vary between species and are optimized according to specific situations of an individual´s life, to maximize survival and fitness. Many ecoimmunology studies are focused on understanding the general patterns of immune responses in free-living birds, and what mechanisms mediate the changes in disease susceptibility, which in turn may affect population dynamics and survival. Information regarding these immunologic trade-offs remain largely unknown, and thus becoming of paramount importance when contextualized with climate change effects over migration ecology and the distribution of animal diseases. The work comprised in this thesis addressed the general question of how differences in environmental pathogen pressure shape the innate and adaptive immunity of a free-living bird species. The long-distance migrant Black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa; hereafter godwit), was used as a study model, since the two subspecies, nominate (Limosa limosa limosa) and Icelandic (L. l. islandica), vary on migratory strategy and habitat-use, which consequently differ in pathogen pressure. Below, I summarize the main contributions of my work for the ecoimmunology research area. On chapter I, I tested whether the strength of immune response is indeed correlated with the environmental pathogen risk that ...
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