Toxicological effects of petroleum hydrocarbons and other persistent contaminants in marine birds and laboratory model species

加拿大的海岸线是提供栖息地的复杂生态系统 对于国际上重要的海鸟种群。人类活动构成 对海洋和河口鸟类的多重压力。作为顶级捕食者，海鸟 暴露在过多的持久性商业化学品中，这些化学品在 食物链。例子包括滴滴涕和多氯联苯等遗留化学品，它们可以 影响内分泌和其他生理功能，危及生存和 种群的繁殖。最近阻燃的溴化和氟化 苏格兰威士忌和特氟隆等产品中使用的化合物已受到污染 世界各地的食物链。海洋鸟类和捕食性鸟类是受污染最严重的 用那些化学物质。通过国内法规，在#年取得了很大进展。 加拿大并通过国际条约，如《关于持久性的斯德哥尔摩协定》 有机污染物，以减少污染。然而，大型水库仍然存在 环境。对化学品的商业需求仍在继续，大部分发展 并在亚洲和拉丁美洲生产替代化合物 环境法规往往不那么严格的国家。海鸟 也极易受到石油污染的影响，因为从 运输和防止意外泄漏。加拿大是大豆的主要生产国和出口国。 从纽芬兰进行海上生产和运输的石油产品 货架。加拿大的大部分生产现在以油砂沥青的形式存在。 从主要输送到美国的艾伯塔省，然而，两条新的管道 提议将沥青运往英国北部和南部的港口 哥伦比亚号将被装上油轮并出口。此外，随着气候变化的继续， 推动北极融化，石油勘探和生产将扩大， 北方航道将开放，对敏感的北极地区构成更大的风险 系统。石油产品的长期释放似乎是不可避免的 进入加拿大海洋环境的风险只会增加 造成灾难性后果的重大漏油事故。石油影响 通过涂抹羽毛和立即和长期摄取 溢油和残留的碳氢化合物污染物。尽管过去有过研究，但工具 为了评估石油衍生碳氢化合物的慢性毒理学影响， 还不是很发达。但这样的证据表明，漏油对人类的长期影响 海鸟可能是野生动物遭受持续伤害的基本证据 资源。对于这里的研究，我建议使用这两个电台的先进技术 遥测和分子生物学。远距 将使用跟踪工具评估空间移动和曝光 海洋鸟类对污染物，包括石油。其次，我建议应用小说 以DNA基因阵列的形式测试微妙效应的分子技术 前哨海鸟物种的无数化学应激源。

Canada’s coastlines are complex ecosystems providing habitat for internationally important seabird populations. Human activities pose multiple stresses on marine and estuarine birds. As top predators, seabirds are exposed to a plethora of persistent commercial chemicals which bioaccumulate in food chains. Examples include legacy chemicals such as DDT and PCBs which can affect endocrine and other physiological functions and compromise survival and reproduction of populations. Recently flame retardant brominated chemicals and fluorinated compounds used in products such as Scotch guard and Teflon have contaminated food chains worldwide. Marine and predatory birds are among the most contaminated with those chemicals. Much progress has been made via domestic regulations in Canada and via international treaties such as the Stockholm Agreement on Persistent Organic Pollutants to reduce contamination. However, large reservoirs persist in the environment. Commercial demand for chemicals continues, with much of the development and production of replacement compounds taking place in Asian and Latin American countries, often with less stringent environmental regulations. Marine birds are also extremely vulnerable to oil pollution via both chronic release from shipping and from accidental spills. Canada is a major producer and exporter of petroleum products with marine production and shipping from the Newfoundland shelf. The bulk of Canadian production is now in the form of oil sands bitumen from Alberta which is mainly pipelined to the U.S. However, two new pipeline proposals intend to ship bitumen to ports in northern and southern British Columbia to be loaded onto tankers and exported. Furthermore, as climate change continues driving a thawing arctic, exploration and production of oil will expand, and northern shipping lanes will open, posing an increased risk to sensitive arctic systems. It seems inevitable that the chronic release of petroleum products into Canada’s marine environments will only increase as will the risk of a major spill which would have devastating consequences. Petroleum affects seabirds by both oiling of plumage and by immediate and chronic ingestion of spilt oil and residual hydrocarbon contaminants. Despite past research, tools for assessing the chronic toxicological impact of oil derived hydrocarbons are still not well developed. But such evidence of chronic effects of spilt oil on seabirds could be fundamental to proof of sustained injury to wildlife resources. For the research here, I propose to use advances in both radio telemetry and molecular biology. Remote tracking tools will be used to assess the spatial movement and exposure of marine birds to contaminants, including oil. Secondly I propose to apply novel molecular techniques in the form of DNA gene arrays to test the subtle effects of those myriad chemical stressors on sentinel seabird species.