Premium
Organochlorines, perfluoroalkyl substances, mercury, and egg incubation temperature in an Arctic seabird: Insights from data loggers
Author(s) -
Blévin Pierre,
Shaffer Scott A.,
Bustamante Paco,
Angelier Frédéric,
Picard Baptiste,
Herzke Dorte,
Moe Børge,
Gabrielsen Geir Wing,
Bustnes Jan Ove,
Chastel Olivier
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1002/etc.4250
Subject(s) - incubation , mercury (programming language) , hatching , brood , bird egg , biology , ecology , environmental chemistry , chemistry , biochemistry , computer science , programming language
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 inc ) 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 inc 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 inc 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 inc in the most oxychlordane‐contaminated kittiwakes was associated with a lower egg hatching probability. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:2881–2894. © 2018 SETAC