Physiological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds

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I have a book in press (Physiological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds) that provides a comprehensive review of avian reproduction and concludes, rather remarkably, that we have only a rudimentary, and in some cases non-existent, understanding of the physiological mechanisms underpinning reproductive traits which population studies have shown are most closely related to individual variation in reproductive success, e.g. timing of breeding, number of eggs laid, and parental care. I develop two main themes: that we must consider this topic from a female perspective and that we need to focus on individual variation, and I argue for a shift of focus in research on avian reproduction if we are to successfully integrate physiology and ecology. I will combine laboratory studies of captive-breeding zebra finches (500+ birds) with studies of free-living, nest-box breeding European starlings. In a series of correlative and experimental studies I will investigate physiological mechanisms underpinning individual variation in, a) timing of breeding, and b) parental care, integrating data on temperature, prey availability, foraging behavior, and physiology (hormone levels, metabolites, hematology) approaching this from a novel "exercise physiology" perspective derived from human sports medicine studies. A second set of experiments will validate, and then use, physiological techniques for manipulation of individual variation in clutch size to identify the hormonal control mechanisms regulating the number of eggs birds lay. The long-term goal of this research is to better integrate physiology and evolutionary biology to increase our knowledge of the physiological response mechanisms underpinning the avian life-history traits that contribute most to variation in fitness. This work is critical to enable us to develop an ability to predict, not simply track, how climate change will affect avian populations: this requires that we obtain a far better understanding of the basic, underlying physiological and hormonal mechanisms that link environmental cues and environmental conditions to reproduction.