Experimental corticosterone manipulation increases mature feather corticosterone content: implications for inferring avian stress history from feather analyses
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Feathers incorporate plasma corticosterone (CORT) during their development and, because feathers lack blood supply at maturity, the CORT content of feathers (CORTf) is presumed to represent an integrated average of plasma CORT levels during feather growth. We tested this assumption by quantifying CORTf in feathers of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) that were plucked before and after being implanted with either a corticosterone-filled, metyrapone-filled, or empty (sham) silastic capsule. Two of the seven flight feathers collected from each bird were fully grown when birds received implants. We found that CORTf of all seven feathers corresponded with treatment type, and with plasma CORT levels of non-moulting reference sparrows also given these implants. We also found that CORTf of the two mature feathers of each bird were 4 to 10-fold higher than values measured in new feathers. Given the avascular nature of mature feathers, and the fact that we did not wash the feathers prior to analysis, the most plausible explanation for our results is that CORT was externally deposited on feathers after implant. This outcome emphasises the need for follow-up studies to identify the external sources of CORT that may affect the CORTf of feathers. We hope this study will stimulate discussions and further much needed studies on the mechanism of CORT deposition in feathers and open exciting opportunities for application of such methods in ecological research, such as measuring multiple time scales in such a non-invasive manner.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".