Simulating physiological flexibility in the acute glucocorticoid response to stressors reveals limitations of current empirical approaches

PeerJ

article

Conor Taff¹ 

[1] Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University;Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University

关键词: Acute stress response;    Physiological flexibility;    Glucocorticoids;    Evolutionary endocrinology;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.14039

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Wild animals often experience unpredictable challenges that demand rapid and flexible responses. The glucocorticoid mediated stress response is one of the major systems that allows vertebrates to rapidly adjust their physiology and behavior. Given its role in responding to challenges, evolutionary physiologists have focused on the consequences of between-individual and, more recently, within-individual variation in the acute glucocorticoid response. However, empirical studies of physiological flexibility are severely limited by the logistical challenges of measuring the same animal multiple times. Data simulation is a powerful approach when empirical data are limited, but has not been adopted to date in studies of physiological flexibility. In this article, I develop a simulation that can generate realistic acute glucocorticoid response data with user specified characteristics. Simulated animals can be sampled continuously through an acute response and across as many separate responses as desired, while varying key parameters. Using the simulation, I develop several scenarios that address key questions in physiological flexibility. These scenarios demonstrate the conditions under which a single glucocorticoid trait can be accurately assessed with typical experimental designs, the consequences of covariation between different components of the acute stress response, and the way that context specific differences in variability of acute responses can influence the power to detect relationships between the strength of the acute stress response and fitness. I also describe how to use the simulation tools to aid in the design and evaluation of empirical studies of physiological flexibility.

【 授权许可】

CC BY