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Is the additional effort of renesting linked to a hormonal change in the common tern?

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Abstract

The production of and care for a replacement clutch can bear costs in terms of future reproduction or survival. However, renesting is quite common among seabirds and can contribute considerably to individual fitness. Prolactin and corticosterone are two hormones involved in the mediation of breeding behavior and, as they are linked to body condition or effort, it is of interest if these hormone values change during a second demanding breeding phase within a year. We compared baseline prolactin and corticosterone between the first and the renesting attempt in common terns (Sterna hirundo) on individual level. Therefore, in addition to control birds, 37 breeders were sampled during incubation of their first and their replacement clutch in 2008 and 2009. Blood samples were taken non-invasively by blood-sucking bugs. Prolactin level was lower during the renesting period, especially in birds which abandoned their clutch afterwards, whereas corticosterone did not change. Excluding the deserting birds, the reduced prolactin level was not linked to minor success, but could be related to seasonal processes. The control group of late laying common terns showed comparably low prolactin values, but increased corticosterone concentrations. Renesting individuals exhibited higher prolactin during incubation of their first clutch than non-renesting birds, probably indicating their higher quality. The fact that terns still have relatively high prolactin and low corticosterone values during renesting might confirm their higher quality and suggests that they are able to meet the costs of a second demanding breeding period without being considerably stressed.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful for assistance in taking blood samples to C. Bauch, J. Krauss, J. Spieker and C. Wolters, and want to thank many field assistants for their help in collecting field data. Many thanks are due to G. A. Schaub from the University of Bochum for providing the bugs and to R. Nagel as well as J. Trauernicht for technical support. At the CEBC, we thank A. Lacroix and C. Trouvé for their excellent technical assistance in hormone assays. We thank Dr. A. F. Parlow for the supply of chicken prolactin and antibodies. L. Szostek provided helpful comments on the manuscript. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions that helped to improve the paper. The study was done under the license of Bezirksregierung Weser-Ems and Stadt Wilhelmshaven and was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (BE916/8-3).

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  1. Institute of Avian Research “Vogelwarte Helgoland”, An der Vogelwarte 21, 26386, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Juliane Riechert & Peter H. Becker

  2. Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, CNRS, 79360, Villiers en Bois, France

    Olivier Chastel

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  1. Juliane Riechert
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  2. Olivier Chastel
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Correspondence to Juliane Riechert.

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Communicated by G. Heldmaier.

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360_2012_713_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Online Resource 1 Baseline prolactin and corticosterone values measured in birds that lost their eggs (including damaged and unhatched eggs as well as abandoned clutches) or their chicks (mainly due to starvation) across within renesting birds during their first (R1) and second breeding attempt (R2) and within early breeders that lost their brood but did not renest (C2). Lost refers to the sample sizes of lost clutches. (TIFF 4 kb)

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Riechert, J., Chastel, O. & Becker, P.H. Is the additional effort of renesting linked to a hormonal change in the common tern?. J Comp Physiol B 183, 431–441 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-012-0713-4

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