Carrera Sofia C, Godoy Irene, Gault Colleen M, Mensing Ashley, Damm Juliane, Perry Susan E, Beehner Jacinta C
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Lomas Barbudal Monkey Project, Lomas Barbudal Biological Reserve, Bagaces, Costa Rica.
Sci Adv. 2025 Jan 24;11(4):eadq5020. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adq5020. Epub 2025 Jan 22.
We know more about the costs of chronic stress than the benefits of the acute stress response-an adaptive response that buffers organisms from life-threatening challenges. As yet, no primate study has empirically identified how the stress response adaptively affects evolutionary fitness. Here, we take advantage of a natural experiment-an El Niño drought-that produced unprecedented mortality for wild white-faced capuchins. Using a reaction norm approach, we provide evidence from primates that a more robust stress response to a challenge, measured using fecal glucocorticoids, predicts a greater likelihood of survival. We show that individuals with greater stress responsiveness to previous droughts later had higher survival across a severe El Niño drought. Evolutionary models need empirical data on how stress responsivity varies in adaptive ways. While we cannot buffer subjects from catastrophic events, we can use them to understand which aspects of the stress response help animals to "weather the storm."
我们对慢性应激的代价了解得比对急性应激反应的益处更多——急性应激反应是一种适应性反应，可保护生物体免受危及生命的挑战。迄今为止，尚无灵长类动物研究能通过实证确定应激反应如何适应性地影响进化适应性。在此，我们利用一项自然实验——厄尔尼诺干旱，它给野生白面卷尾猴带来了前所未有的死亡率。我们采用反应规范方法，从灵长类动物研究中提供证据表明，用粪便糖皮质激素衡量，对挑战做出更强有力的应激反应预示着更高的存活可能性。我们发现，对先前干旱应激反应更强的个体，在严重的厄尔尼诺干旱期间存活率更高。进化模型需要关于应激反应性如何以适应性方式变化的实证数据。虽然我们无法使研究对象免受灾难性事件影响，但我们可以利用这些事件来了解应激反应的哪些方面能帮助动物“渡过难关”。
