Reproductive Failure in UK Harbour Porpoises Phocoena phocoena : Legacy of Pollutant Exposure?

• Published in: PLOS ONE
• Main Authors: Murphy, Sinead, Barber, Jonathan L., Learmonth, Jennifer A., Read, Fiona L., Deaville, Robert, Perkins, Matthew W., Brownlow, Andrew, Davison, Nick, Penrose, Rod, Pierce, Graham J., Law, Robin J., Jepson, Paul D.
• Other Authors: University of Aberdeen.Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS), University of Aberdeen.Biological Sciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being; bottle-nosed dolphins; California Sea Lions; endocrine-disrupting chemicals; persistent organic pollutants; St-Lawrence Estuary; mink mustela-vison; polychlorinated-biphenyls; Zalophus-Californianus; tursiops-truncatus; delphinus-delphis; QH301 Biology; QH301; North East Atlantic; Phocoena phocoena
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2164/4973; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131085

This research was supported by a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the Seventh European Community Framework Programme (Project Cetacean-stressors, PIOF-GA-2010-276145 to PDJ and SM). Additional funding was provided through the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS) (Grants SSFA/2008 and SSFA / ASCOBANS / 2010 / 5 to SM). Analysis of Scottish reproductive and teeth samples was funded by the EC-funded BIOCET project (BIOaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in small CETaceans in European waters: transport pathways and impact on reproduction, grant EVK3-2000-00027 to GJP), and Marine Scotland (GJP). Samples examined in this research were collected under the collaborative Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (http://ukstrandings.org/), which is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the UK’s Devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales (http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&Completed=0&ProjectID=15331) (grants to PDJ, RD). UK Defra also funded the chemical analysis under a service-level agreement with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (grants to RJL, JB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Peer reviewed