Data for: Environment-dependent relationships between corticosterone and energy expenditure during reproduction: insights from seabirds in the context of climate change

We studied the relationship between baseline levels of the steroid hormone corticosterone and daily energy expenditure (DEE) in the little auk (Alle alle), an Arctic sea bird that is experiencing mounting energetic challenges due to climate change. We specifically investigated the hypothesis that there might be environment-dependent relationships between baseline corticosterone, DEE, time activity budgets, diving behavior and fitness-related traits (chick provisioning rate, adult body condition). Furthermore, we also examined whether mercury (Hg) contamination might interfere with corticosterone production, and hence potentially the capacity to upregulate DEE. In addition, we performed a phylogenetically controlled analysis across breeding seabird species to assess the relationship between baseline corticosterone and DEE, which we estimated via a model derived from a phylogenetically controlled meta-analysis, available within a web-based app (‘Seabird FMR Calculator’, https://ruthedunn.shinyapps.io/seabird_fmr_calculator/) (Dunn et al. 2018). These datasets contain information on corticosterone levels, DEE, TABs and Hg in little auks, and the data used in our phylogenetically controlled analysis. Please see the READ me file for details.本研究探讨了北极海鸟小海雀（Alle alle）的基础类固醇激素皮质酮（corticosterone）水平与每日能量消耗（daily energy expenditure, DEE）之间的关联——该物种正因气候变化面临日益加剧的能量代谢挑战。我们专门验证了如下假说：基础皮质酮水平、DEE、活动时间分配、潜水行为与适合度相关性状（雏鸟投喂率、成体身体状况）之间可能存在环境依赖型关联。此外，我们还检验了汞（Hg）污染是否会干扰皮质酮的生成，进而可能影响机体上调DEE的能力。此外，我们针对繁殖海鸟类群开展了系统发育控制分析（phylogenetically controlled analysis），以评估基础皮质酮水平与DEE之间的关联；本研究中DEE的估算基于一款网页应用程序“海鸟场代谢率计算器（Seabird FMR Calculator）”（https://ruthedunn.shinyapps.io/seabird_fmr_calculator/）所搭载的系统发育控制元分析衍生模型（Dunn等，2018）。本数据集涵盖小海雀的皮质酮水平、DEE、活动时间分配及汞含量相关信息，同时包含系统发育控制分析所使用的数据集。详细信息请参阅README文档。