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Modulation of the adrenocortical response to acute stress with respect to brood value, reproductive success and survival in the Eurasian hoopoe

  • Physiological ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Reproducing parents face the difficult challenge of trading-off investment in current reproduction against presumed future survival and reproduction. Glucocorticoids are supposed to mediate this trade-off because the adrenocortical response to stress disrupts normal reproductive behaviour in favour of self-maintenance and own survival. According to the brood-value hypothesis, individuals with a low survival probability until the next reproductive season have to invest in current reproduction, a process driven by a down-regulation of their adrenocortical response. If the adrenocortical response to stress effectively mediates the trade-off between current reproduction versus future survival and reproduction, we expect a negative relationship with reproductive success and a positive correlation of the adrenocortical stress response with survival. We studied the relationship between corticosterone secretion in parents and their current brood value, reproductive success and survival in a short-lived multi-brooded bird, the Eurasian hoopoe Upupa epops. The adrenocortical response to acute handling stress was correlated with the brood value within the individual (first and second broods of the year) and between individuals. Birds breeding late in the season mounted a lower total corticosterone response to acute stress than birds breeding earlier, while females showed lower levels than males. We observed a negative relationship between the adrenocortical stress response and rearing success or fledging success in females, as predicted by the brood-value hypothesis. However, we could not evidence a clear link between the adrenocortical stress response and survival. Future research testing the brood-value hypothesis and trade-offs between current reproduction and future survival should also measure free corticosterone and carefully differentiate between cross-sectional (i.e. between-individual) and individual-based experimental studies.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Maïa Berman, François Biollaz, Yves Bötsch, Celia Bueno, Karen Falsone, Myles Menz, Murielle Mermod, Stephane Mettaz, Paul Mosimann-Kampe, Patricia Portner, Antoine Sierro, Davide Tam, Matthias Tschumi, Silvia Zingg, and especially Thomas Reichlin for their commitment during the field work. Many thanks to Jérôme Guelat and Fränzi Korner-Nievergelt for their help with statistical analyses. Earlier drafts of the manuscript were improved thanks to the valuable comments of Bettina Almasi, Gilberto Pasinelli and three anonymous reviewers. Ringing and blood sampling were done under licences of the cantonal (Sion) and federal (Bern) governmental agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Ornithological Institute, Seerose 1, 6204, Sempach, Switzerland

    Baptiste Schmid, Laura Tam-Dafond, Susanne Jenni-Eiermann, Michael Schaub & Lukas Jenni

  2. Valais Field Station, Swiss Ornithological Institute, Rue du Rhône 11, 1950, Sion, Switzerland

    Raphaël Arlettaz

  3. Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Raphaël Arlettaz

Authors
  1. Baptiste Schmid
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  2. Laura Tam-Dafond
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  3. Susanne Jenni-Eiermann
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  4. Raphaël Arlettaz
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  5. Michael Schaub
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  6. Lukas Jenni
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Correspondence to Lukas Jenni.

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Communicated by Pawel Koteja.

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Schmid, B., Tam-Dafond, L., Jenni-Eiermann, S. et al. Modulation of the adrenocortical response to acute stress with respect to brood value, reproductive success and survival in the Eurasian hoopoe. Oecologia 173, 33–44 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-013-2598-7

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