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.

本研究针对因气候变化正面临日益加剧能量挑战的北极海鸟小海雀（Alle alle），探讨其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。我们专门验证了如下假说：基础皮质酮水平、每日能量消耗、时间活动预算（Time Activity Budgets, TABs）、潜水行为与适合度相关性状（雏鸟喂食率、成体身体状况）之间可能存在环境依赖性关联。此外，我们还考察了汞（mercury, Hg）污染是否会干扰皮质酮的生成，进而可能影响机体上调每日能量消耗的能力。另外，我们针对繁殖海鸟类群开展了系统发育控制分析，以评估基础皮质酮水平与每日能量消耗之间的关联；本研究的每日能量消耗估算值基于网页应用程序「Seabird FMR Calculator」（https://ruthedunn.shinyapps.io/seabird_fmr_calculator/）中提供的系统发育控制荟萃分析衍生模型（Dunn et al. 2018）。本数据集包含小海雀的皮质酮水平、每日能量消耗、时间活动预算及汞含量数据，以及系统发育控制分析所用的相关数据。详细信息请参阅READ ME文件。