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Physiological, Morphological and Behavioural Responses of Self-Feeding Precocial Chicks Copying with Contrasting Levels of Water Salinity during Development

Combined physiological and behavioural responses to salt loads during development have rarely been studied in air-breathing vertebrates able to inhabit hypersaline habitats, but they may be of particular importance in understanding, for example, the differences among species in patterns of habitat u...

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Autores principales: Rocha, Afonso R., Silva, Rita, Villegas, Auxiliadora, Sánchez-Guzmán, Juan M., Ramos, Jaime A., Masero, José A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5082863/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27788200
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165364
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author Rocha, Afonso R.
Silva, Rita
Villegas, Auxiliadora
Sánchez-Guzmán, Juan M.
Ramos, Jaime A.
Masero, José A.
author_facet Rocha, Afonso R.
Silva, Rita
Villegas, Auxiliadora
Sánchez-Guzmán, Juan M.
Ramos, Jaime A.
Masero, José A.
author_sort Rocha, Afonso R.
collection PubMed
description Combined physiological and behavioural responses to salt loads during development have rarely been studied in air-breathing vertebrates able to inhabit hypersaline habitats, but they may be of particular importance in understanding, for example, the differences among species in patterns of habitat use or ontogenetic diet switches. Here, we compared the physiological and behavioural responses of self-feeding precocial chicks developed in contrasting levels of water salinity. The model species was the Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) a precocial shorebird that breeds in a range of habitats from freshwater to hypersaline wetlands. Specifically, we compared resting metabolic rate (RMR), heat shock proteins (Hsp70), plasma ions, hematocrit, body mass, body size, growth rate and head-shaking behaviour of captive-reared Black-winged Stilt fledglings developed under fresh (0 ‰), saline (20 ‰), and hypersaline (60 ‰) water. Contrary to expectations, none of the physiological and morphological variables measured differed significantly among treatments. Likewise, the RMR of wild and captive-reared fledglings was similar. Surprisingly, the saltgland mass of wild fledglings from freshwater and those from hypersaline habitats was also similar. However, head-shaking, a behavioural response associated to minimize salt intake and to expel the secretions of salt glands, differed according to salinity source: head-shaking rate increased with increasing salinity. The results of this study support the key role of behavioural osmoregulation in avoiding salt stress during development.
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spelling pubmed-50828632016-11-04 Physiological, Morphological and Behavioural Responses of Self-Feeding Precocial Chicks Copying with Contrasting Levels of Water Salinity during Development Rocha, Afonso R. Silva, Rita Villegas, Auxiliadora Sánchez-Guzmán, Juan M. Ramos, Jaime A. Masero, José A. PLoS One Research Article Combined physiological and behavioural responses to salt loads during development have rarely been studied in air-breathing vertebrates able to inhabit hypersaline habitats, but they may be of particular importance in understanding, for example, the differences among species in patterns of habitat use or ontogenetic diet switches. Here, we compared the physiological and behavioural responses of self-feeding precocial chicks developed in contrasting levels of water salinity. The model species was the Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) a precocial shorebird that breeds in a range of habitats from freshwater to hypersaline wetlands. Specifically, we compared resting metabolic rate (RMR), heat shock proteins (Hsp70), plasma ions, hematocrit, body mass, body size, growth rate and head-shaking behaviour of captive-reared Black-winged Stilt fledglings developed under fresh (0 ‰), saline (20 ‰), and hypersaline (60 ‰) water. Contrary to expectations, none of the physiological and morphological variables measured differed significantly among treatments. Likewise, the RMR of wild and captive-reared fledglings was similar. Surprisingly, the saltgland mass of wild fledglings from freshwater and those from hypersaline habitats was also similar. However, head-shaking, a behavioural response associated to minimize salt intake and to expel the secretions of salt glands, differed according to salinity source: head-shaking rate increased with increasing salinity. The results of this study support the key role of behavioural osmoregulation in avoiding salt stress during development. Public Library of Science 2016-10-27 /pmc/articles/PMC5082863/ /pubmed/27788200 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165364 Text en © 2016 Rocha et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rocha, Afonso R.
Silva, Rita
Villegas, Auxiliadora
Sánchez-Guzmán, Juan M.
Ramos, Jaime A.
Masero, José A.
Physiological, Morphological and Behavioural Responses of Self-Feeding Precocial Chicks Copying with Contrasting Levels of Water Salinity during Development
title Physiological, Morphological and Behavioural Responses of Self-Feeding Precocial Chicks Copying with Contrasting Levels of Water Salinity during Development
title_full Physiological, Morphological and Behavioural Responses of Self-Feeding Precocial Chicks Copying with Contrasting Levels of Water Salinity during Development
title_fullStr Physiological, Morphological and Behavioural Responses of Self-Feeding Precocial Chicks Copying with Contrasting Levels of Water Salinity during Development
title_full_unstemmed Physiological, Morphological and Behavioural Responses of Self-Feeding Precocial Chicks Copying with Contrasting Levels of Water Salinity during Development
title_short Physiological, Morphological and Behavioural Responses of Self-Feeding Precocial Chicks Copying with Contrasting Levels of Water Salinity during Development
title_sort physiological, morphological and behavioural responses of self-feeding precocial chicks copying with contrasting levels of water salinity during development
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5082863/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27788200
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165364
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