Meeting Abstract
During migration, birds use primarily fats to fuel their long-duration flights and this high rate of fat metabolism during exercise substantially increases the bird’s oxidative stress. Birds may avoid the cellular damage associated with this oxidative stress during exercise by up-regulating their endogenous antioxidant capacity (e.g., liver antioxidant enzymes) and by consuming more dietary antioxidants in preparation for migration and during stopovers while migrating from wintering to summer sites. I will test a series of hypotheses related to how the physiology of migratory birds changes during endurance flights to cope with enhanced oxidative stress, and how this relates to the ecology of birds at stopover sites. Supported by NSF (IOS-0748349) and USDA (RIAES-538748).
