BRC-BIO: Toxicity in the city: the cumulative effects of heavy metals on the behavior and physiology of urban-adapted birds

全球城市化正在加速，而人类改变环境的主要方式之一就是通过增加污染。重金属是已知对包括人类在内的生物体造成危害的一种污染物。例如，重金属--包括铅、汞、镉、铬、砷等元素--即使在很低的浓度下也是有毒的。重金属通过建筑和运输等活动释放到环境中，因此人们普遍认为，城市或受人类影响的地区比农村地区的重金属浓度更高。该项目通过监测一种常见鸟类欧洲八哥血液和羽毛中重金属的积累来评估这一假设，欧洲八哥是从佐治亚州10个县的地点采集的，这些县的范围从城市为主到农村为主。这项研究还侧重于了解重金属经验水平对鸟类生理和行为的影响，以了解暴露的亚致命影响。最终，这个项目将使我们了解典型的重金属暴露，它与城市化的关联，以及这种暴露对鸟类行为和生理的影响。这项研究的结果将导致关于重金属暴露对居住在相同地区的人类的潜在影响的新假设。该项目将进一步造福社会，培训不同的学生--包括本科生和研究生--在亚特兰大都会创造付费研究机会，并将研究纳入肯纳索州立大学的课堂。研究小组将通过访问从城市到农村的学习地点的教室与高中生互动，分享研究成果并测试学校土壤重金属浓度。这个项目解决了城市化、重金属污染、动物行为和生理学以及公共卫生之间的三个知识差距。Pi Guindre-Parker将通过筛选自由生活的欧洲八哥的血液和羽毛组织来表征从城市到农村的重金属暴露。在佐治亚州的10个城市化程度不同的县，包括大都市亚特兰大，将对八哥种群进行抽样。接下来，Pi Guindre-Parker将研究重金属暴露对八哥的生理和行为应对方式的亚致命性影响。方法包括免疫和内分泌分析，以确定生理特征，以及开放现场测试，以评估行为。重要的是，这项工作将探索在自由生活条件下，同时接触多种重金属是如何塑造动物表型的。最后，Pi Guindre-Parker将通过将八哥的结果映射到已公布的人类数据上，研究八哥是否可以用于重金属的生物监测。重金属中毒在佐治亚州的许多县仍然是一个令人担忧的问题，包括亚特兰大大都会区，这项工作的结果将有助于正在进行的监测该州重金属的倡议。该奖项还将创造2个全额资助的研究生职位和3个有偿的本科研究职位，并将允许144名生物专业的学生通过PiGuindre-Parker年度脊椎动物动物学课程中基于课程的本科研究经验(CURE)参与课堂研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Urbanization is increasing globally, and one of the major ways in which humans are altering the environment is through increased pollution. Heavy metals are one type of pollutant that is known to cause harm to organisms, including humans. For example, heavy metals—which include elements like lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, and many others—are toxic even at very low concentrations. Heavy metals are released into the environment by activities such as construction and transportation, and so are commonly believed to be found in greater concentration in urban or human-impacted areas than in rural locales. This project evaluates that assumption by monitoring the accumulation of heavy metals in the blood and feathers of a common bird, the European starling, sampled from locations across 10 Georgia counties that range from predominantly urban to predominantly rural. The research also focuses on understanding the effects of experienced levels of heavy metals on the physiology and behavior of the birds, to understand the sublethal effects of exposure. Ultimately, this project will inform our understanding of typical heavy metal exposure, its association with urbanization, and the consequences of that exposure for bird behavior and physiology. The results of this study will lead to new hypotheses about the potential effects of heavy metal exposure in humans that inhabit the same areas. The project will further benefit society by training diverse students—including undergraduate and graduate students—through creating paid research opportunities in metropolitan Atlanta, as well as incorporating research into the classroom at Kennesaw State University. The research team will engage with high school students through visits to classrooms across the urban-to-rural study sites to share research findings and test school soil heavy metal concentrations. This project addresses three knowledge gaps on the links among urbanization, heavy metal pollution, animal behavior and physiology, and public health. PI Guindre-Parker will characterize heavy metal exposure along an urban-to-rural gradient by screening blood and feather tissues of free-living European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Starling populations will be sampled across 10 counties in Georgia that differ in their degree of urbanization, including metropolitan Atlanta. Next, PI Guindre-Parker will examine the sublethal effects of heavy metal exposure on the physiology and behavioral coping styles of starlings. Methods include immune and endocrine assays to characterize physiology, as well as open field tests to assess behavior. Importantly, this work will explore how exposure to multiple heavy metals simultaneously shapes animal phenotypes under free-living conditions. Finally, PI Guindre-Parker will investigate whether starlings can serve in biomonitoring heavy metals via mapping results from starlings onto published data in humans. Heavy metal poisoning continues to be a concern in many Georgia counties, including in metro-Atlanta, and results from this work would benefit ongoing initiatives to monitor heavy metals in the state. This award would also create 2 fully funded graduate positions, 3 paid undergraduate research positions, and would allow 144 biology majors to participate in classroom research via course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURE) in PI Guindre-Parker’s annual Vertebrate Zoology course.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.