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- Title
Long-term effects of prenatal sounds in birds.
- Authors
Mariette, M. M.
- Abstract
The embryonic stage is a very crucial period of development when many of the organism's functions are set in place. The environmental conditions encountered during that process can shape embryonic development and thereby affect phenotypes on the long-term. While the impact of prenatal nutritional and endocrine environment has long-been studied, the possibility for sound to also shape development has only recently been considered. Yet, sound being so ubiquitous in the environment, it could provide valuable information to finetune embryonic development, or on the contrary - in the case of noise - interfere with their development. For example, in the zebra finch, a "heat-call" produced by parents incubating in the heat can alter embryonic development, and as a result, adaptively adjust nestling growth to heat. However, the long-term consequences of these changes are only started to be investigated. In this talk, I will present several experiments investigating the long-term effects of embryonic acoustic experience. In all experiments, eggs were artificially incubated under optimal conditions, and in the last 5 days of development, exposed to playbacks of either heat-calls or control calls. The nestlings were then raised by foster parents, while their growth and physiology was monitored. At adulthood, we tested individual thermal preferences for nest site and microhabitat, as well as their behavioural and physiological thermoregulation capacity. In addition, to investigate more broadly the sensitivity of embryonic development to sound, we performed a similar experiment where late-stage embryos were instead exposed to playback of either traffic noise or conspecific song. We found that individuals exposed to heat-calls prenatally choose hotter nest sites in adulthood and alter their microsite use, activity and panting behaviour on hot summer days. They are also more tolerance to heat in adulthood, even though they do not thermoregulate more efficiently. These effects, in addition to the heat-adjusted nestling growth trajectory, may contribute to the observed higher individual reproductive success in adulthood. On the contrary, noise exposure has detrimental effects on growth, with long-lasting negative consequences on individual physiology and fitness. Conclusions: Together, these studies demonstrate that prenatal sound has a much larger impact on embryonic development than generally considered, with life-long consequences.
- Subjects
EMBRYOLOGY; HEAT adaptation; ZEBRA finch; FOSTER parents; TRAFFIC noise; BODY temperature regulation; BIRDSONGS
- Publication
European Poultry Science / Archiv für Geflügelkunde, 2024, Issue 396, p10
- ISSN
0003-9098
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1399/eps.2024.396