Samuel J. Lane

North Dakota State University | NDSU · Department of Biological Sciences

Seasonal changes in sleep/wake cycles and behaviors related to reproduction often co‐occur with seasonal fluctuations in sex hormones. Experimental studies have established that fluctuations in circulating testosterone mediate circadian rhythms. However, most studies are performed under constant lighting conditions and fail to investigate the effec...

Urbanization reflects a major form of environmental change impacting wild birds globally. Whereas urban habitats may provide increased availability of water, some food items, and reduced predation levels compared to rural, they can also present novel stressors including increased light at night, ambient noise, and reduced nutrient availability. Urb...

Urbanization reflects a major form of environmental change impacting wild birds globally. Whereas urban habitats may provide increased availability of water, some food items, and reduced predation levels compared to rural, they can also present novel stressors including increased light at night, ambient noise, and reduced nutrient availability. Urb...

Behavioral traits are often the first response to changing environmental conditions, including human induced rapid environmental change. For example, animals living in urban areas are often more aggressive than rural animals. This is especially evident in songbirds; males of several species display elevated aggression in urban habitats. Increased m...

The costs and benefits of breeding behaviors are influenced by environmental conditions, and habitat variation can shift the degree to which behaviors are expressed. Novel urban habitats have been shown to differ significantly in disturbances such as noise, light at night, and human presence, as well as resource availability, compared to rural habi...

A central theme in the field of ecology is understanding how environmental variables influence a species’ distribution. In the last 20 years, there has been particular attention given to understanding adaptive physiological traits that allow some species to persist in urban environments. However, there is no clear consensus on how urbanization infl...

Urban habitats present animals with persistent disturbances and acute stressors not present in rural habitats or present at significantly lower levels. Differences in the glucocorticoid stress response could underlie colonization of these novel habitats. Despite urban habitats characterization as more stressful, previous comparisons of urban and ru...

Urbanization fragments landscapes and can impede the movement of organisms through their environment, which can decrease population connectivity. Reduction in connectivity influences gene flow and allele frequencies, and can lead to a reduction in genetic diversity and the fixation of certain alleles, with potential negative effects for populations...

The Cort-Fitness Hypothesis has generated much interest from investigators integrating field endocrinology with evolutionary biology, ecology, and conservation. The hypothesis was developed to test the assumption that if glucocorticoid levels increase with environmental challenges and fitness decreases with environmental challenges, then there shou...

The Cort-Fitness hypothesis has generated much interest from investigators integrating field endocrinology with evolutionary biology, ecology, and conservation. The hypothesis was developed on the assumption that if glucocorticoid levels increase with environmental challenges and fitness decreases with environmental challenges, then there should be...