Individual variability in contaminants and physiological status in a resident Arctic seabird species

While migratory seabirds dominate ecotoxicological studies within the Arctic, there is limited knowledge about exposure and potential effects from circulating legacy and emerging contaminants in species who reside in the high-Arctic all year round. Here, we focus on the case of the Mandt's Blac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental Pollution
Main Authors: Eckbo, Norith, Le Bohec, Céline, Planas-bielsa, Victor, Warner, Nicholas A., Schull, Quentin, Herzke, Dorte, Zahn, Sandrine, Haarr, Ane, Gabrielsen, Geir W., Borgå, Katrine
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier BV 2019
Subjects:
Black guillemot
Pollutants
Polar regions
Oxidative stress
Seabirds
Telomeres
Arctic
Svalbard
Cepphus grylle
Kongsfjord*
Kongsfjorden
Online Access:https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00479/59019/61637.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2019.01.025
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00479/59019/
Description
Summary:While migratory seabirds dominate ecotoxicological studies within the Arctic, there is limited knowledge about exposure and potential effects from circulating legacy and emerging contaminants in species who reside in the high-Arctic all year round. Here, we focus on the case of the Mandt's Black guillemot (Cepphus grylle mandtii) breeding at Kongsfjorden, Svalbard (79.00°N, 11.66°E) and investigate exposure to legacy and emerging contaminants in relation to individual physiological status, i.e. body condition, oxidative stress and relative telomere length. Despite its benthic-inshore foraging strategy, the Black guillemot displayed overall similar contaminant concentrations in blood during incubation (∑PCB11 (15.7 ng/g w.w.) > ∑PFAS5 (9.9 ng/g w.w.) > ∑Pesticides9 (6.7 ng/g w.w.) > ∑PBDE4 (2.7 ng/g w.w.), and Hg (0.3 μg/g d.w.) compared to an Arctic migratory seabird in which several contaminant-related stress responses have been observed. Black guillemots in poorer condition tended to display higher levels of contaminants, higher levels of reactive oxygen metabolites, lower plasmatic antioxidant capacity, and shorter telomere lengths; however the low sample size restrict any strong conclusions. Nevertheless, our data suggests that nonlinear relationships with a threshold may exist between accumulated contaminant concentrations and physiological status of the birds. These findings were used to build a hypothesis to be applied in future modelling for describing how chronic exposure to contaminants may be linked to telomere dynamics.

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