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Ecological immunology: life history trade-offs and immune defense in birds
Authors:Norris  Ken; Evans  Matthew R
Institution:a School of Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 228, Reading, RG6 6AJ, UK, b Department of Biological and Molecular Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK
Abstract:There has been considerable recent interest in the effects oflife-history decisions on immunocompetence in birds. If immunocompetenceis limited by available resources, then trade-offs between investmentin life-history components and investment in immunocompetencecould be important in determining optimal life-history traits.For this to be true: (1) immunocompetence must be limited byresources, (2) investment in life-history components must benegatively correlated with immunocompetence, and (3) immunocompetencemust be positively correlated with fitness. To gather such empiricaldata, ecologists need to be able to measure immunocompetence.We review techniques used to measure immunocompetence and howthey are applied by ecologists. We also consider the componentsof the immune system that constitute immunocompetence and evaluatethe possible consequences of measuring immunocompetence in differentways. We then review the empirical evidence for life-historytrade-offs involving immune defense. We conclude that thereis some evidence suggesting that immunocompetence is limitedby resources and that investment in certain life-history componentsreduces immunocompetence. However, the evidence that immunocompetenceis related to fitness is circumstantial at present, althoughconsistent with the hypothesis that immunocompetence and fitnessare positively correlated. We argue that future work needs toexamine the fitness effects of variation in immunocompetenceand suggest that artificial selection experiments offer a potentiallyimportant tool for addressing this issue.
Keywords:fitness  immune system  immunocompetence  life-history trade-offs  
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