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

城市化在全球范围内不断增加，而人类改变环境的主要方式之一就是增加污染。重金属是一种已知会对包括人类在内的生物造成伤害的污染物。例如，重金属——包括铅、汞、镉、铬、砷和许多其他元素——即使浓度很低也是有毒的。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，城市或受人类影响地区的重金属浓度高于农村地区。这个项目通过监测一种常见鸟类——欧洲椋鸟的血液和羽毛中重金属的积累来评估这一假设，这些样本来自乔治亚州10个县，从城市到农村都占主导地位。研究还侧重于了解重金属水平对鸟类生理和行为的影响，以了解接触的亚致死效应。最终，这个项目将使我们了解典型的重金属暴露，它与城市化的关系，以及这种暴露对鸟类行为和生理的影响。这项研究的结果将对居住在同一地区的人类接触重金属的潜在影响提出新的假设。该项目将通过在亚特兰大大都市创造有偿研究机会，并将研究纳入肯尼索州立大学的课堂，培养包括本科生和研究生在内的不同学生，从而进一步造福社会。研究小组将通过访问城市到农村研究地点的教室与高中学生交流，分享研究成果并测试学校土壤重金属浓度。该项目解决了城市化、重金属污染、动物行为和生理以及公共卫生之间联系的三个知识缺口。PI gindre - parker将通过筛选自由生活的欧洲椋鸟（Sturnus vulgaris）的血液和羽毛组织来描述城市到农村的重金属暴露情况。将对乔治亚州城市化程度不同的10个县的椋鸟种群进行抽样调查，其中包括亚特兰大大都会。接下来，PI guinde - parker将研究重金属暴露对椋鸟生理和行为应对方式的亚致死效应。方法包括免疫和内分泌试验来描述生理特征，以及开放现场试验来评估行为。重要的是，这项工作将探索在自由生活条件下暴露于多种重金属如何同时塑造动物表型。最后，PI guinde - parker将研究欧椋鸟是否可以通过将欧椋鸟的结果映射到已发表的人类数据中来进行重金属生物监测。重金属中毒仍然是乔治亚州许多县（包括亚特兰大大都会）关注的问题，这项工作的结果将有利于该州正在进行的重金属监测倡议。该奖项还将创造2个全额资助的研究生职位，3个带薪的本科生研究职位，并将允许144名生物学专业的学生通过基于课程的本科生研究经验（CURE）参与PI guinde - parker的年度脊椎动物动物学课程的课堂研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.