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Meeting Abstract

P3-137   -   Periodic cooling of eggs and it's effect on growth and telomere on house sparrow chicks Ghimire, A*; Young, R/C; Heidinger, B/J; North Dakota State University ; North Dakota State University ; North Dakota State University anuj.ghimire@ndsu.edu

Organisms must allocate a finite amount of resources to different competing life history traits, resulting in varying amounts of investment in each trait. This varying amount of investment creates a trade-off between different traits. Among different traits that could be involved in these trade-offs that are related to an important physiological aspect of an organism is growth and longevity. Though growth and longevity have been found to be negatively related, the results are varying from negative, positive, and even no relationship at all. Depending upon the individuals and environmental quality these trade-offs might be obscured. However, this trade-off might be exacerbated during stressful conditions during prenatal and postnatal growth. Here, we manipulated stress exposure during prenatal growth in house sparrow eggs. Eggs were periodically cooled for 3 hours everyday during the incubation period. Chicks were blood sampled on days 2 and 10 post-hatching and measured on days 2, 6, and 10 post-hatching to examine the effects of treatment on growth, changes in telomere length, and body size. Results will be discussed within the context of life-history theory.