Abstract:

The dataset contains information on circulating plasma corticosterone levels in seaside sparrows (Ammospiza maritima) collected from various sites in southeastern Louisiana from 2013 to 2015. Baseline circulating corticosterone levels are presented as well as levels following injection with adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), along with Seaside Sparrow collection data.

Suggested Citation:

Bonisoli Alquati, A.. 2020. Plasma corticosterone in seaside sparrows collected in southeastern Louisiana from 2013-03-20 to 2015-06-29. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/n7-ch1w-dc15

Purpose:

To test whether birds exposed to Deepwater Horizon oil differed from control birds in their stress levels, as indexed by plasma concentrations of the glucocorticoid hormone corticosterone.

Data Parameters and Units:

Date of field collection: DD-Mon-YY; Year: Year of field collection; Site: User-defined site identifier; Latitude: in decimal degrees; Longitude: in decimal degrees; Oiling Status: oiling in 2010 based on SCAT survey and map criteria (oiled=heavily oiled, unoiled=very light or no oil observed, reference=east of the Mississippi River plume); ID: the numerical ID band assigned to the bird; CORT: the concentration of corticosterone (pg/µL); CORTSample: indicates whether the concentration refers to baseline (1) or was measured after a challenge with ACTH (2).

Methods:

Corticosterone was extracted from plasma collected in heparinized microcapillary tubes using diethyl ether. Two rounds of extractions were performed for each sample. Acorticosterone enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) was run using a commercial kit (Cayman Chemicals, Ann Arbor, MI) following the manufacturer's instructions. Briefly, like other competitive ELISA’s, our assay was based on the competition between an unlabeled analyte (corticosterone) and an enzyme-labeled analyte (acetylcholinesterase, AChE). The coloration, which is proportional to the amount of AChE bounded to the plate’s well, was determined spectrophotometrically at 412 nm wavelength.

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