Jessica Malisch, assistant professor of biology, and SMCM biology major, Melanie Kimball ‘19, have recently been published in General and Comparative Endocrinology titled, “Across time and space: Hormonal variation across temporal and spatial scales in relation to nesting success.”
In this article, Malisch and colleagues repeatedly sampled corticosterone and testosterone hormone levels in a free-living population of mountain white-crowned sparrows, Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha, to understand the connection between hormone levels and reproductive fitness. Interestingly, the researchers did not find a relationship between male hormone concentrations and home-range size or nesting success. Malisch and colleagues recommend that future studies attend to both physiological and environmental components to better understand the connection between hormones and reproductive fitness.
