Neuroexcitatory Environmental Stress: Comparative and Integrative Studies

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Many environmental stressors, such as toxic metals, algal biotoxins, physical trauma, and low oxygen are neuroexcitatory and thus over-stimulate the nervous system. These findings have largely been established in biomedical models, however little is known about how ecological organisms respond to and cope with such neuroexcitatory stress. This, despite the fact that organisms in their natural environment are continually exposed to such stressors across the lifespan. The long-term goal of my research is to better understand the developmental, molecular, cellular and behavioral mechanisms by which ecological organisms respond to exposure to excitatory stressors. The specific focus here will be on birds and in the particular the avian egg (chicken, quail, mallard). Exposure to stressors can be carefully controlled in the closed environment of an egg, biological responses can be measured and integrated across multiple levels of organization, and eggs can be studied in both the laboratory and the natural world. We will focus on physiological (l-glutamic acid) and ecological (methylmercury and lead) excitatory stressors. This work is important for understanding the impacts of environmental stressors on the health of natural populations, and how organisms cope. Specifically, the outcome of this research is expected to fill major knowledge gaps concerning developmental windows of vulnerability, multiple stressor impacts, and integrative physiology (i.e., molecular to whole animal) of neuroexcitatory responses. Findings will be broadly disseminated to colleagues in government and non-profit agencies, and the scientific community through conferences and publications. Research and education objectives will be integrated by having students conduct the experiments.