Telomere length is a strong predictor of foraging behavior in a long-lived seabird

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Rebecca C. Young
  • Alexander S. Kitaysky
  • Chris P. Barger
  • Ine Dorresteijn
  • Motohiro Ito
  • Yutaka Watanuki

Telomeres are an increasingly studied component of physiological ecology. However, in longlived birds a large telomere loss with chronological age is not the norm. Telomeres are now regarded less as a chronological aging tool and more as an indicator of individual quality, residual lifespan, or biological age. If telomeres indicate biological aging processes, then they should also be associated with other variables that change with age, especially foraging and reproductive behaviors. This study compared telomere length to a suite of foraging parameters in Thick-billed Murres breeding on three colonies in the Bering Sea. Telomere length, environmental conditions at colonies, and sex played pivotal roles in determining foraging habitat selection. Spatial habitat use, foraging efficiency, and prey selection variables all changed with telomere length. The behavioral evidence indicates that despite losing telomeres, birds with short telomere length retain their ability to use the environment efficiently. This indicates that aging birds remain behaviorally flexible, despite paying physiological costs. Changes in spatial use were largely sex-dependent: females and males differed in their use of the environment as telomere lengths declined. Prey selection was related to telomere length and colony; changes in murre trophic level depended on telomere length, but their direction also depended on habitat quality. We found much support for the continued able functioning of birds with shorter telomeres, indicating that physiological aging does not carry only costs. Murres appear to modify their behavior depending on environmental conditions as their physiological reserves decline.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer39
ZeitschriftEcosphere
Jahrgang6
Ausgabenummer3
Anzahl der Seiten26
ISSN2150-8925
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 01.03.2015

Bibliographische Notiz

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Funding number: 13J06234

Dokumente

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Online Network Impedance Identification with Wave-Package and Inter-Harmonic Signals
  2. Using authentic representations of practice in teacher education
  3. Giving is a question of time: response times and contributions to an environmental public good
  4. Model-based potential analysis of the distribution logistics:
  5. Revidierbarkeit, ein Muster der Hypersphäre
  6. Reconstructing the “biopiracy” debate from a justice perspective
  7. AAL-Onto
  8. The Persistence of Subsistence Agriculture
  9. Partitioning Behavior of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Compounds between Pore Water and Sediment in Two Sediment Cores from Tokyo Bay, Japan
  10. Crisis in Social Practices? Experiences from the Research Project "Blocked Transistion? Spaces of Thinking and Action in Sustainable Regional Development"
  11. Formative Assessment in Mathematics Instruction
  12. Assessing the environmental fate of S-metolachlor, its commercial product Mercantor Gold® and their photoproducts using a water-sediment test and in silico methods
  13. Briefe schreiben in der Sekundarstufe I
  14. Using meaningful places as an indicator for sense of place in the management of social-ecological systems
  15. Organizational Practices for the Aging Workforce
  16. Model predictive control of an electromagnetic actuator fed by multilevel PWM inverter
  17. Links between media communication and local perceptions of climate change in an indigenous society
  18. Evidence-Based Management and Organizational Reality
  19. Assessment of physical strain in younger and older subjects using heart rate and scalings of perceived exertion
  20. Integrated driver rostering problem in public bus transit