BioenergArc · Bioenergetic Effects of Anthropogenic Contaminants and Climate Change on a Keystone Arctic Seabird
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-05-01 → 2023-04-30
- EU contribution
- €184,708
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Bioenergetic Effects of Anthropogenic Contaminants and Climate Change on a Keystone Arctic Seabird
Global climate change is transforming bioenergetic landscapes, challenging organisms’ capacity to maintain energy balance. Repercussions are particularly profound in Arctic regions, where rates of warming exceed the global average by a factor of ~4. Animals can display plasticity in behavior and physiology, expanding the breadth of the ecological niche. However, there are limits to animals’ ability to make phenotypic modifications that support energetic homeostasis. The bioenergetic effects of climate change are attracting increasing research attention, but studies are still limited, especially in Arctic endotherms. Furthermore, diverse chemical contaminants have neurotoxic, endocrine disrupting, and energetic effects that may interact with biological impacts of climate change to modify bioenergetic outcomes. Volatile and persistent chemical contaminants can reach remote regions through long-range transport mechanisms and bioaccumulate up food chains. Climate change is changing dynamics of contaminant cycling in Arctic ecosystems, which can result in increases in exposure. The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme has highlighted elucidating joint effects of climate change and anthropogenic contaminants as a research priority. The aim of this project (BioenergArc) was to contribute to this objective, using an Arctic seabird (Alle alle) as a model system, and to investigate the following questions: (1) Does contaminant exposure affect metabolic rate and thermoregulatory capacity in a fashion that could undermine capacity to cope with climate change? (2) How does environmental variation and contaminant exposure affect activity budgets and daily energy expenditure (DEE)? (3) Does variation in bioenergetic traits, potentially related to contamination levels, translate into fitness effects? Several conclusions have resulted from this work. Among the most important are that changes in environmental conditions associated with climate change are transforming activity budgets of little auks, driving energetic costs upward. Behavioral plasticity currently appears to buffer fitness effects, but threatens to become unsustainable as temperatures continue to rise. In addition, results suggest important thermoregulatory implications of the changing cryosphere, with loss of sea ice as a resting substrate increasing thermoregulatory challenge during foraging trips at sea. Although Hg contamination was not associated with variation in activity budgets, DEE, or fitness, there was evidence for effects of Hg contamination on thermoregulatory dynamics. A literature review also revealed diverse avenues through which contaminants and climate change may interactively affect biological response variables.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Global climate change and anthropogenic contamination are pressing problems of international scope. A paucity of knowledge exists regarding combined effects of climate change and contaminant exposure on bioenergetics and thermoregulation, effects which are projected to be especially pronounced in the high Arctic. Indeed, understanding joint effects of climate change and anthropogenic contaminants is a current research priority of the Arctic Council. In this project (BioenergArc), I will collaborate with leading French scientists at La Rochelle University to address this research area from a bioenergetic perspective, using a keystone Arctic seabird species, the little auk (Alle alle), as a model system. I will use field respirometry to elucidate whether exposure to a suite of contaminants (methylmercury, organochlorines, perfluoroalkyls) affects resting metabolic rate and thermoregulatory capacity in a fashion that could undermine the capacity to cope with climate change. I will also use accelerometry in combination with experimental manipulations to examine whether contaminant exposure affects field metabolic rate, activity patterns and responses to increased workloads. Finally, I will investigate whether variation in thermoregulatory capacity and energy budgeting affects spatial habitat use and fitness. BioenergArc will combine my expertise in behavioural and physiological responses to environmental change with my collaborators’ complementary expertise in Arctic ecophysiology, ecotoxicology and spatial ecology. I will receive advanced training in field respirometry and biologging, and expand my research in highly topical new directions. Results will be disseminated through top-tier publications, international conferences and public engagement, and communicated to working groups of the Arctic Council to promote conservation initiatives. The project will solidify my scientific reputation and serve as a critical stepping stone towards a permanent research position.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- LA ROCHELLE UNIVERSITE · La RochelleCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union