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

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****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.******