Feather corticosterone reveals stress associated with dietary changes in a breeding seabird.

ABSTRACT: Changes in climate and anthropogenic pressures might affect the composition and abundance of forage fish in the world's oceans. The junk-food hypothesis posits that dietary shifts that affect the quality (e.g., energy content) of food available to marine predators may impact their physiological state and consequently affect their fitness. Previously, we experimentally validated that deposition of the adrenocortical hormone, corticosterone, in feathers is a sensitive measure of nutritional stress in seabirds. Here, we use this method to examine how changes in diet composition and prey quality affect the nutritional status of free-living rhinoceros auklets (Cerorhinca monocerata). Our study sites included the following: Teuri Is. Japan, Middleton Is. central Gulf of Alaska, and St. Lazaria I

SUBMITTER: Will A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4667832 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature