COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN THE ANTARCTIC MARINE FOOD WEB: IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND INSIGHTS INTO THE FEEDING ECOLOGY OF APEX PREDATORS

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。持久性有机污染物在环境中持久存在，通过大气远距离迁移到极地地区，在生物组织中积累，在食物网中产生生物放大作用（浓度随营养水平增加），并造成不利影响。该项目的总体目标是利用南极海洋生物体内的化学信号：（a）追踪储存在冰川冰中的持久性有机污染物进入南极海洋食物网的情况，以及（B）深入了解南极海鸟和海洋哺乳动物的饮食偏好和摄食生态。这一目标将通过美国和瑞典科学家充分协调和合作的研究工作来实现，这些研究工作将为从浮游植物到顶级捕食者（海鸟、海豹和鲸鱼）的各种南极海洋生物生成相互校准的化学数据。拟议研究的智力价值包括了解全球气候变化与冰川污染物库流动之间的潜在联系。因此，它很可能成为了解冰川中储存的污染物对区域水生生态系统未来潜在影响的案例研究。其次，这项研究有望为南极生物在不同营养级的摄食生态学提供见解。拟议研究项目的更广泛影响将包括：（a）通过各种非技术性媒体宣传研究成果，使广大受众了解研究成果，从而提高科学认识的巨大潜力，（B）在以研究生为主的研究机构的教师和学生之间建立研究和教育合作（弗吉尼亚海洋科学研究所）和一个主要的本科院校（查塔姆女子学院），以及（c）通过在美国机构和斯德哥尔摩大学的国际合作伙伴之间建立研究合作，加强美国的研究基础设施，瑞典农业科学大学

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) persist in the environment, undergo long-range atmospheric transport to polar regions, accumulate in biological tissues, biomagnify (increase in concentration with trophic level) in food webs, and cause adverse effects. The overall goal of this project is to use chemical signals in Antarctic marine organisms to: (a) trace the movement of POPs stored in glacier ice into the Antarctic marine food web, and (b) provide insight into the dietary preferences and feeding ecology of Antarctic seabirds and marine mammals. This goal will be achieved through a fully coordinated and collaborative research effort by U.S. and Swedish scientists that will generate intercalibrated chemical data for a variety of Antarctic marine organisms ranging in trophic level from phytoplankton to top predators (seabirds, seals, and whales). The intellectual merit of the proposed research includes providing an understanding of the potential coupling between global climate change and mobilization of glacier reservoirs of contaminants. As such, it is likely to serve as a case study for understanding the potential future impact of contaminants stored in glaciers on regional aquatic ecosystems. Secondly, this research is expected to provide insights into the feeding ecology of Antarctic organisms at various trophic levels. The broader impacts of the proposed research project will include: (a) a strong potential to enhance scientific understanding through publicizing research findings in diverse nontechnical media that reach broad audiences, (b) establishing a research and education collaboration between faculty and students from a predominantly graduate research institution (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) and a predominantly undergraduate institution (Chatham College for Women), and (c) enhancing U.S research infrastructure by establishing a research collaboration between U.S. institutions and international partners at Stockholm University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.