The frequency and intensity of ecological perturbations affecting wild animal populations is expected to increase in the future with animals facing numerous global threats. Seahorse Key is a continental island off mainland Florida that has historically been a major rookery for several species of waterbirds. As a result of an unknown disturbance, the entire rookery abandoned Seahorse Key in April 2015 and shifted nesting activities to nearby Snake Key, resulting in an influx of food resources in the form of fish carrion to resident Florida cottonmouth snakes (Agkistrodon conanti), while snakes on Seahorse Key experienced a drastic reduction in food resources. Our objective was to assess plasma corticosterone concentrations, corticosterone negative feedback using dexamethasone, blood glucose, body condition, packed cell volume, natural antibody agglutination, white blood cell counts and ratios and erythrocyte sedimentation rate to characterize the long-term effects of differential resource availability in these two snake populations 3 years after this major ecological disturbance. We collected blood samples at three time points from cottonmouths on Seahorse Key (n = 6 individuals) and Snake Key (n = 13 individuals) in fall 2018. In due consideration of the small sample size, our study shows evidence that 3 years after the shift in waterbird nesting Seahorse Key cottonmouths exhibit a dampened acute stress response and presumptive impaired innate immune functions relative to cottonmouths on Snake Key. These results highlight the context-dependent nature of biomarkers and implicate the significant decrease in food resources on Seahorse Key in altering hormonal stress responses and innate immune functions, possibly leading to unknown long-term downstream effects. This study assessed the response of a wild population of pit viper to ecological disturbance in situ with the aim to improve our understanding of how animals cope with such perturbations and improve our capacity to make informed decisions for conservation.

中文翻译：

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有两个岛屿的故事：生态骚扰后岛in毒蛇的应激反应减弱和免疫功能改变的证据。

随着动物面临众多全球性威胁，影响野生动物种群的生态扰动的频率和强度预计将在未来增加。海马钥匙（Seahorse Key）是佛罗里达州沿海的一个大陆岛，历史上一直是几种水鸟的主要繁殖地。由于不明原因的干扰，整个鸟群于2015年4月放弃了Seahorse Key，并将筑巢活动转移到附近的Snake Key，导致鱼类腐肉形式的食物资源大量涌入了佛罗里达州的佛罗里达棉嘴蛇（Agkistrodon conanti），而海马礁上的蛇的食物资源急剧减少。我们的目标是评估血浆皮质酮浓度，使用地塞米松的皮质酮负反馈，血糖，身体状况，细胞堆积量，天然抗体凝集，白细胞计数和比率以及红细胞沉降率来表征在这种主要的生态扰动发生3年后这两个蛇种群资源差异的长期影响。我们于2018年秋季在三个时间点从Seahorse Key（n = 6个个体）和Snake Key（n = 13个个体）的棉口采集了血液样本。在考虑到样本量较小的情况下，我们的研究表明，在与Snake Key上的棉口相比，Seahorse Key棉口的水鸟嵌套变化显示出减弱的急性应激反应，并推定先天免疫功能受损。这些结果凸显了生物标志物的背景依赖性，并暗示了海马食物资源的显着减少，从而改变了荷尔蒙应激反应和先天免疫功能，可能导致未知的长期下游影响。这项研究评估了野蛇的野生种群对原位生态扰动的反应，目的是增进我们对动物如何应对这种扰动的了解，并提高我们做出明智的保护决定的能力。