Short-term dietary changes are reflected in the cerebral content of adult Ring-billed Gulls
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Long-chain omega-3s (n3-LCPUFAs) are produced primarily in aquatic ecosystems and are essential for the structural integrity of vertebrates' brains. Carnivorous mammals must consume n3-LCPUFAs throughout their lifespan to maintain optimal cerebral functions; it is unknown whether other taxa are under similar nutritional pressures. This is concerning because many avian predators now rely on anthropogenic foods lacking n3-LCPUFAs. Here, we tested whether a recent or longer-term diet explains the encephalic fatty acid composition of a seabird, the Ring-billed Gull, that now thrives in cities. During the breeding season, rural gulls exploiting marine organisms had significantly higher encephalic levels of n3-LCPUFAs (mean±SD: 32±1%) than city-nesting gulls exploiting garbage (27±1%). Stable isotope analysis of blood and feathers grown during different seasons showed that urban and rural nesters consumed similar fall and winter diets, suggesting that the difference in cerebral n3-LCPUFA of breeding adults was due to concomitant and transient dietary differences. We also experimentally manipulated gulls' diets throughout incubation with a n3-LCPUFA supplement, a n3-LCPUFA-free caloric equivalent, or nothing, and found evidence that supplemental n3-LCPUFA increased urban nesters' cerebral levels of n3-LCPUFAs. These complementary analyses provide strong evidence that the brain of a seabird remains plastic during adulthood and responsive to short-term dietary changes.
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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 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| 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".