Journal article
Biomarkers of animal health: integrating nutritional ecology, endocrine ecophysiology, ecoimmunology, and geospatial ecology
Ecology and evolution, Vol.5(3), pp.557-566
02/2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103973
PMCID: PMC4328761
PMID: 25691980
Abstract
Diverse biomarkers including stable isotope, hormonal, and ecoimmunological assays are powerful tools to assess animal condition. However, an integrative approach is necessary to provide the context essential to understanding how biomarkers reveal animal health in varied ecological conditions. A barrier to such integration is a general lack of awareness of how shared extraction methods from across fields can provide material from the same animal tissues for diverse biomarker assays. In addition, the use of shared methods for extracting differing tissue fractions can also provide biomarkers for how animal health varies across time. Specifically, no study has explicitly illustrated the depth and breadth of spacial and temporal information that can be derived from coupled biomarker assessments on two easily collected tissues: blood and feathers or hair. This study used integrated measures of glucocorticoids, stable isotopes, and parasite loads in the feathers and blood of fall‐migrating Northern saw‐whet owls (Aegolius acadicus) to illustrate the wealth of knowledge about animal health and ecology across both time and space. In feathers, we assayed deuterium (δD) isotope and corticosterone (CORT) profiles, while in blood we measured CORT and blood parasite levels. We found that while earlier migrating owls had elevated CORT levels relative to later migrating birds, there was also a disassociation between plasma and feather CORT, and blood parasite loads. These results demonstrate how these tissues integrate time periods from weeks to seasons and reflect energetic demands during differing life stages. Taken together, these findings illustrate the potential for integrating diverse biomarkers to assess interactions between environmental factors and animal health across varied time periods without the necessity of continually recapturing and tracking individuals. Combining biomarkers from diverse research fields into an integrated framework hold great promise for advancing our understanding of environmental effects on animal health.
This study illustrates the depth of knowledge about animal heath, across both time and space, that can be gained by coupling extraction methods and physiological assays from diverse fields of research on easily obtained tissues. While these assays are common within each field, there is a great lack of awareness of how assays from diverse fields like stable isotope ecology and endocrinology can be methodologically integrated, or the great range of temporal knowledge that can be gained from differing fractions of the same tissue. This study brings to the forefront the great opportunities that exist to integrate already existing methods and biomarkers to better detail animal condition and health.
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Details
- Title
- Biomarkers of animal health: integrating nutritional ecology, endocrine ecophysiology, ecoimmunology, and geospatial ecology
- Creators
- Robin W Warne - Vassar CollegeGlenn A Proudfoot - Vassar CollegeErica J Crespi - Vassar College
- Publication Details
- Ecology and evolution, Vol.5(3), pp.557-566
- Academic Unit
- Biological Sciences, School of
- Number of pages
- 10
- Grant note
- Forsyth Nature Center John Burroughs Natural History Society National Science Foundation (EJC (IOS‐0818212).) Vassar College Environmental Research Institute's Collins Student Research Fund OSPA SIUC Vassar College Academic Enrichment Fund
- Identifiers
- 99900546687901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article