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

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.