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Organochlorines, perfluoroalkyl substances, mercury, and egg incubation temperature in an Arctic seabird: Insights from data loggers

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, ISSN: 1552-8618, Vol: 37, Issue: 11, Page: 2881-2894
2018
  • 14
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 67
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    14
    • Citation Indexes
      13
    • Policy Citations
      1
      • Policy Citation
        1
  • Captures
    67

Article Description

In birds, incubation-related behaviors and brood patch formation are influenced by hormonal regulation such as prolactin secretion. Brood patch provides efficient heat transfer between the incubating parent and the developing embryo in the egg. Importantly, several environmental contaminants are already known to have adverse effects on avian reproduction. However, relatively little is known about the effect of contaminants on incubation temperature (T ) in wild birds. By using temperature thermistors placed into artificial eggs, we investigated whether the most contaminated parent birds are less able to provide appropriate egg warming and thus less committed to incubating their clutch. Specifically, we investigated the relationships among 3 groups of contaminants (organochlorines, perfluoroalkyl substances [PFASs], and mercury [Hg]) with T and also with prolactin concentrations and brood patch size in incubating Arctic black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla). Our results reveal that among the organochlorines considered, only blood levels of oxychlordane, the main metabolite of chlordane, a banned pesticide, were negatively related to the minimum incubation temperature in male kittiwakes. Levels of PFASs and Hg were unrelated to T in kittiwakes. Moreover, our study suggests a possible underlying mechanism: since we reported a significant and negative association between blood oxychlordane concentrations and the size of the brood patch in males. Finally, this reduced T in the most oxychlordane-contaminated kittiwakes was associated with a lower egg hatching probability. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:2881–2894. © 2018 SETAC.

Bibliographic Details

Blévin, Pierre; Shaffer, Scott A; Bustamante, Paco; Angelier, Frédéric; Picard, Baptiste; Herzke, Dorte; Moe, Børge; Gabrielsen, Geir Wing; Bustnes, Jan Ove; Chastel, Olivier

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Environmental Science

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