Environmental stressors alter relationships between physiology and behaviour

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2013.05.005

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Volume 28, Issue 11, November 2013, Pages 651-658

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.05.005 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Stressors amplify physiological and behavioural links by increasing variation.
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Stressors can attenuate such relationships by decreasing variation.
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These mechanisms stem from differing sensitivity to stressors among phenotypes.
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These influences underlie a range of ecological phenomena.
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They could also be important for evolutionary responses to environmental change.

Although correlations have frequently been observed between specific physiological and behavioural traits across a range of animal taxa, the nature of these associations has been shown to vary. Here we argue that a major source of this inconsistency is the influence of environmental stressors, which seem capable of revealing, masking, or modulating covariation in physiological and behavioural traits. These effects appear to be mediated by changes in the observed variation of traits and differential sensitivity to stressors among phenotypes. Considering that wild animals routinely face a range of biotic and abiotic stressors, increased knowledge of these effects is imperative for understanding the causal mechanisms of a range of ecological phenomena and evolutionary responses to stressors associated with environmental change.

Section snippets

Physiology and behaviour: an unstable relationship

Both behavioural (e.g., boldness, aggression, activity level) and physiological (e.g., metabolic rate (MR), hormonal profiles) traits often show wide and consistent variation among individuals of the same species and this variation can have clear consequences for fitness and the evolution of life histories 1, 2. In conjunction, there are links between specific behavioural and physiological traits that underlie an enormous array of ecological phenomena, including but not limited to foraging,

Stress as a revealing or amplifying factor

When exposed to a stressor, animals alter the priority of specific behaviours and physiological functions. For example, fasted individuals can become more active as they attempt to find food, those exposed to higher predation risk become more likely to hide, and individual endotherms exposed to cold generally increase metabolic heat production. Importantly, the extent of such reprioritisation appears to vary among individuals with different behavioural or physiological characteristics (e.g.,

Ecological and evolutionary implications

A major unknown we must address before we truly understand the role of intraspecific variation in affecting broad-scale ecological phenomena is the causal direction of the relationship between physiology and behaviour. On the one hand, physiological traits appear capable of either promoting or constraining certain types of behaviour. High energetic demand or hormonal cues, for instance, might drive individuals to obtain resources or territory, and hormonal signalling can also steer

Concluding remarks

Moderate stressors appear to reveal or amplify links between specific measures of physiology and behaviour, whereas severe stressors might mask or attenuate any pre-existing relationships. The strength of correlations between particular physiological and behavioural traits may thus be context dependent and vary in relation to environmental conditions. The exact mechanisms responsible for these effects differ among stressors, but in general could operate via differential sensitivity to the

Acknowledgements

S.S.K. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on earlier versions of this article.

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Trends in Ecology & Evolution

OpinionEnvironmental stressors alter relationships between physiology and behaviour

Highlights

Section snippets

Physiology and behaviour: an unstable relationship

Stress as a revealing or amplifying factor

Ecological and evolutionary implications

Concluding remarks

Acknowledgements

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A

Trends Ecol. Evol.

J. Sea Res.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Comp. Biochem. Physiol. C

Horm. Behav.

Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A

Physiol. Behav.

Aquat. Toxicol.

Environ. Pollut.

Aquat. Toxicol.

Anim. Behav.

J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol.

Biol. Conserv.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

What causes intraspecific variation in resting metabolic rate and what are its ecological consequences?

Proc. Biol. Sci.

Energy metabolism and animal personality

Oikos

Performance, personality, and energetics: correlation, causation, and mechanism

Physiol. Biochem. Zool.

Thermal Adaptation: A Theoretical and Empirical Synthesis

Genetic correlations, tradeoffs and environmental variation

Heredity

Eco-evolutionary dynamics in response to selection on life-history

Ecol. Lett.

Physiological mechanisms underlying a trade-off between growth rate and tolerance of feed deprivation in the European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

J. Exp. Biol.

Fuel, fasting, fear: routine metabolic rate and food deprivation exert synergistic effects on risk-taking in individual juvenile European sea bass

J. Anim. Ecol.

Refuge use by fish as a function of body length related metabolic expenditure and predation risks

Proc. Biol. Sci.

Stress hormones and sociality: integrating social and environmental stressors

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Aerobic capacity influences the spatial position of individuals within fish schools

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Anaemia adjusts the aerobic physiology of snapper (Pagrus auratus) and modulates hypoxia avoidance behaviour during oxygen choice presentations

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A relationship between metabolic rate and risk-taking behaviour is revealed during hypoxia in juvenile European sea bass

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Species-specific patterns of refuge use in fish: the role of metabolic expenditure and body length

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Opinion
Environmental stressors alter relationships between physiology and behaviour