Environment‐dependent relationships between corticosterone and energy expenditure during reproduction: Insights from seabirds in the context of climate change

Alternative hypotheses have been proposed regarding how the hormone corticosterone (CORT) mediates energy expenditure during reproduction. Elevated baseline CORT (CORTb) could support daily energy expenditure (DEE), promoting reproductive effort or downregulate costly behaviours in low quality individuals facing allostatic overload. We investigated relationships between CORTb, time activity budgets (TABs), DEE and diving behaviour across 2 years and colonies of little auk (Alle alle), an Arctic seabird in which elevating DEE may support reproduction in the face of climate change. We also explored whether mercury (Hg) contamination might suppress DEE by affecting the hypothalamus‐pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and CORT production. Furthermore, we performed phylogenetically controlled analysis across breeding seabird species to build broader understanding of CORT‐DEE relationships. CORTb positively correlated with little auk activity, DEE and dive duration during a cold year in East Greenland, when CORTb was elevated in the population, but not during a warmer year, or at Svalbard. CORTb did not predict chick provisioning nor did Hg suppress CORTb. Across breeding seabird species, CORTb and DEE were uncorrelated. Rather, contrary to predictions, CORTb was higher in species breeding at lower latitudes. Intraspecific results suggest environment‐dependent relationships between CORTb, behaviour and DEE, with implications for understanding CORTb's role in climate change resiliency. Interspecific analyses suggest absence of correlational selection between CORTb and DEE during reproduction, and that DEE thresholds that induce changes in CORTb might differ between species. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.