Meeting Abstract
As urbanization continues to expand, it is vital to understand how animals cope with increasing environmental changes. The physiological stress response, which results in the secretion of corticosterone (cort), may be one way that animals adapt to these urban challenges. In particular, direct pre-natal hormonal transfer into the egg and parental care behaviors can have permissive effects on the offspring. We sampled from a population of house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) at two sites differing in degrees of urbanization. We measured incubation behavior and parental provisioning rates in addition to cort levels in eggs and developing young. We present results on the effects of urbanization on offspring growth. Results will reveal transgenerational effects of hormones due to environmental differences and lead to a better understanding of how maternal investment may promote adaptive offspring phenotypes in urban environments.
