Patterns of annual and seasonal immune investment in a temporal reproductive opportunist.

ABSTRACT: Historically, investigations of how organismal investments in immunity fluctuate in response to environmental and physiological changes have focused on seasonally breeding organisms that confine reproduction to seasons with relatively unchallenging environmental conditions and abundant resources. The red crossbill, Loxia curvirostra, is a songbird that can breed opportunistically if conifer seeds are abundant, on both short, cold, and long, warm days, providing an ideal system to investigate environmental and reproductive effects on immunity. In this study, we measured inter- and intra-annual variation in complement, natural antibodies, PIT54 and leucocytes in crossbills across four summers (2010-2013) and multiple seasons within 1 year (summer 2011-spring 2012). Overall, we observe

SUBMITTER: Schultz EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7329054 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature