Departamento de Ecoloxia e Bioloxía Animal, Edificio de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Vigo, Vigo (Pontevedra), Spain.
Biol Lett. 2012 Feb 23;8(1):61-3. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0756. Epub 2011 Aug 24.
Empirical evidence has shown that stressful conditions experienced during development may exert long-term negative effects on life-history traits. Although it has been suggested that oxidative stress has long-term effects, little is known about delayed consequences of oxidative stress experienced early in life in fitness-related traits. Here, we tested whether oxidative stress during development has long-term effects on a life-history trait directly related to fitness in three colonies of European shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis. Our results revealed that recruitment probability decreased with oxidative damage during the nestling period; oxidative damage, in turn, was related to the level of antioxidant capacity. Our results suggest a link between oxidative stress during development and survival to adulthood, a key element of population dynamics.
实证研究表明，个体在发育阶段经历的压力环境可能会对其生活史特征产生长期的负面影响。尽管有研究表明氧化应激具有长期性的影响，但对于个体早期经历的氧化应激对与适应度相关的生活史特征的延迟后果知之甚少。在这里，我们通过对三个欧洲海鸬鹚（Phalacrocorax aristotelis）的群体进行研究，测试了发育过程中的氧化应激是否对与适应度直接相关的生活史特征具有长期影响。我们的研究结果表明，在育雏期，雏鸟的繁殖概率随着氧化损伤的增加而降低；而氧化损伤与抗氧化能力的水平有关。我们的研究结果表明，发育过程中的氧化应激与成年后的存活率之间存在关联，而后者是种群动态的关键要素。
