Data from: Feather corticosterone reveals effect of moulting conditions in the autumn on subsequent reproductive output and survival in an Arctic migratory bird

Link copied to clipboard!

View this record at source repository

---

Description:

For birds, unpredictable environments during the energetically stressful times of moulting and breeding are expected to have negative fitness effects. Detecting those effects however, might be difficult if individuals modulate their physiology and/or behaviours in ways to minimize short-term fitness costs. Corticosterone in feathers (CORTf) is thought to provide information on total baseline and stress-induced CORT levels at moulting and is an integrated measure of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal activity during the time feathers are grown. We predicted that CORTf levels in northern common eider females would relate to subsequent body condition, reproductive success and survival, in a population of eiders nesting in the eastern Canadian Arctic during a capricious period marked by annual avian cholera outbreaks. We collected CORTf data from feathers grown during previous moult in autumn and data on phenology of subsequent reproduction and survival for 242 eider females over 5 years. Using path analyses, we detected a direct relationship between CORTf and arrival date and body condition the following year. CORTf also had negative indirect relationships with both eider reproductive success and survival of eiders during an avian cholera outbreak. This indirect effect was dramatic with a reduction of approximately 30% in subsequent survival of eiders during an avian cholera outbreak when mean CORTf increased by 1 standard deviation. This study highlights the importance of events or processes occurring during moult on subsequent expression of life-history traits and relation to individual fitness, and shows that information from non-destructive sampling of individuals can track carry-over effects across seasons.

Usage Notes:

Common eider data for Harms et al MS: Feather corticosterone reveals effect of moulting conditions in an Arctic migratory bird

These data were collected from the field from 2007-2011. Column headings are as follows: ID (year plus bird band number); Band (bird band number); year (year eider was captured); CORTf (feather corticosterone in pg/mm); arrival (eider arrival date on breeding colony in Julian days); relArrival (relative arrival date); mass (eider mass in grams); Lay (date first egg was laid); relLay (relative lay date); nest (at least one egg was successfully hatched); Survival (1=eider found dead by end of breeding season, 0= eider that was not found dead during breeding season)

Harms et al_Proc B_ final data for CORTf MS.csv

---

Author(s):

Harms, N. Jane

Harms, N. Jane

University of Saskatchewan

, Legagneux, Pierre

Legagneux, Pierre

Université du Québec à Rimouski

, Gilchrist, H. Grant

Gilchrist, H. Grant

Environment Canada

, Bêty, Joël

Bêty, Joël

Université du Québec à Rimouski

, Love, Oliver P.

Love, Oliver P.

University of Windsor

, Forbes, Mark R.

Forbes, Mark R.

Carleton University

, Bortolotti, Gary R.

Bortolotti, Gary R.

University of Saskatchewan

, and Soos, Catherine

Soos, Catherine

Environment Canada

---

Source Repository:

Dryad

Publisher(s):

Dryad

---

Access:

Public

---

URL:

http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.rp30d

---

Publication date:

2014-12-04

---

Keywords:

feather corticosterone, moult, Reproductive success, common eider, Somateria mollissima borealis, and avian cholera

---

Identifier:

https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rp30d

---

APA Citation:

Harms, N. J., Legagneux, P., Gilchrist, H. G., Bêty, J., Love, O. P., Forbes, M. R., Bortolotti, G. R., & Soos, C. (2014). Data from: Feather corticosterone reveals effect of moulting conditions in the autumn on subsequent reproductive output and survival in an Arctic migratory bird [Data set]. Dryad. http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.rp30d

Citation copied to clipboard

Copy Citation

---

Export to citation manager:

Download bibtex file (.bib)

---