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

石油烃和其他持久性污染物对海洋鸟类和实验室模型物种的毒理学影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-04583
• 负责人: Elliott, John
• 金额: $ 2.7万
• 依托单位: Simon Fraser University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=687033
• 关键词: Toxicological; effects; petroleum; hydrocarbons; other

****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.******

* 加拿大的海岸线是复杂的生态系统，为国际重要的海鸟种群提供栖息地 *。人类活动对海洋和河口鸟类造成多重压力。作为顶级掠食者，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中生物积累。这方面的例子包括滴滴涕和多氯联苯等遗留化学品，这些化学品可能 * 影响内分泌和其他生理功能，并危及人口的生存和 * 繁殖。最近，阻燃剂、溴化化学品和氟化 * 化合物在产品中的使用，如苏格兰卫士和特氟龙，已经污染了全世界的食物链。海洋和食肉鸟类是受这些化学物质污染最严重的鸟类之一。通过 * 加拿大的国内条例和诸如《关于持久性有机污染物的斯德哥尔摩协定》等国际条约，在减少污染方面取得了很大进展。然而，大型水库仍然存在于环境中。对化学品的商业需求仍在继续，大部分替代化合物的开发 * 和生产都在亚洲和拉丁美洲 * 国家进行，而这些国家的环境法规往往不那么严格。海洋鸟类 * 也非常容易受到来自 * 航运和意外泄漏的长期释放的石油污染的影响。加拿大是 * 石油产品的主要生产国和出口国，海洋生产和纽芬兰 * 大陆架的航运。加拿大的大部分产品现在是以油砂沥青 * 的形式从阿尔伯塔生产的，主要通过管道输送到美国。然而，两个新的管道 * 提案打算将沥青运往不列颠 * 哥伦比亚北方和南部的港口，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 * 系统构成更大的风险。似乎不可避免的是，长期释放到加拿大的海洋环境中的石油产品只会增加重大泄漏的风险，这将产生毁灭性的后果。石油通过使海鸟的羽毛脱落以及直接和长期摄入溢出的石油和残留的碳氢化合物污染物来影响海鸟。尽管过去进行了研究，但用于评估石油衍生碳氢化合物的慢性毒理学影响的工具 * 仍然没有得到很好的开发。但是，这些漏油对海鸟造成长期影响的证据可能是证明野生动物资源遭受持续损害的基础。对于这里的研究，我建议使用无线电遥测和分子生物学的进步。 远程 * 跟踪工具将用于评估 * 海洋鸟类的空间移动和暴露于包括石油在内的污染物的情况。第二，我建议以DNA基因阵列的形式应用新的分子技术来测试那些无数的化学压力对哨兵海鸟物种的微妙影响。