Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped

Nagel, Rebecca; Kaiser, Sylvia; Stainfield, Claire; Toscani, Camille; Fox-Clarke, Cameron; Paijmans, Anneke J.; Costa Castro, Camila; Vendrami, David L. J.; Forcada, Jaume ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2115-0150; Hoffman, Joseph I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5895-8949. 2022 Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped. Ecology and Evolution, 12 (3), e8757. 13, pp. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8757

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Abstract/Summary

Individuals are unique in how they interact with and respond to their environment. Correspondingly, unpredictable challenges or environmental stressors often produce an individualized response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its downstream effector cortisol. We used a fully crossed, repeated measures design to investigate the factors shaping individual variation in baseline cortisol in Antarctic fur seal pups and their mothers. Saliva samples were collected from focal individuals at two breeding colonies, one with low and the other with high density, during two consecutive years of contrasting food availability. Mothers and pups were sampled concurrently at birth and shortly before weaning, while pups were additionally sampled every 20 days. We found that heritability was low for baseline cortisol, while within-individual repeatability and among-individual variability were high. A substantial proportion of the variation in baseline cortisol could be explained in pups and mothers by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors including sex, weight, day, season, and colony of birth. Our findings provide detailed insights into the individualization of endocrine phenotypes and their genetic and environmental drivers in a wild pinniped. Furthermore, the strong associations between cortisol and life history traits that we report in fur seals could have important implications for understanding the population dynamics of species impacted by environmental change.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8757
ISSN:	2045-7758
Additional Keywords:	Antarctic fur seal, baseline cortisol, individualization, phenotypic plasticity, pinniped
Date made live:	28 Mar 2022 10:21 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532331

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8757

ISSN:

2045-7758

Additional Keywords:

Antarctic fur seal, baseline cortisol, individualization, phenotypic plasticity, pinniped

Date made live:

28 Mar 2022 10:21 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/532331