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ECCC

Environment and Climate Change Canada
1 Projects, page 1 of 1
  • Funder: French National Research Agency (ANR) Project Code: ANR-20-CE34-0002
    Funder Contribution: 443,278 EUR

    Environmental pollutants and pathogens are known to negatively impact wildlife health and alter population dynamics. While these effects are often sub-lethal or weak individually, we have little information about their cumulative and interactive effects when experienced together. EcoDIS will address this issue via an interdisciplinary approach that combines demographic monitoring, ecotoxicology, population genetics, epidemiology, and movement ecology. We will examine these facets in a common and abundant Mediterranean species, the Yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis), a colonial breeding seabird that lives in close proximity to humans. The project includes three principal objectives and five scientific workpackages (WP). The first objective is to map spatial variability in gull exposure to pollutants and parasite/pathogens across the western Mediterranean Sea (WP1). This will involve assessing pollutant levels (metallic trace elements, macroplastics, microplastics and plastic additives), and exposure to parasites and pathogens (ectoparasites, helminths, bacteria and viruses) in birds from a series of 15 colony locations. Given previous results, we expect these factors to vary strongly at this spatial scale. The second objective is to evaluate the combined effects of these potential stressors on gull demographics (reproductive success, survival and return rates) via monitoring in select focal colonies (WP2). We expect that stressors will have cumulative effects in some cases, but may be interactive in others. Indeed, a particularly novel aspect to be experimentally tested in the project is the potential for parasites and contaminants to interact antagonistically (WP3). If parasites act as pollution sinks, absorbing pollutants faster than their hosts, they may confer a benefit to hosts in highly polluted locations. In contrast, if a contaminant lowers parasite fitness, hosts may prefer to use contaminated sites to escape deleterious parasites. Finally, the last project objective will be to link observational and experimental data to gull movements among colonies and between urban / non-urban areas to examine disease circulation and human risk. Movement will be inferred via direct studies on the gulls - population genetic analyses, CMR modelling of ringing data, and biologging (WP4). It will also be determined indirectly by examining structure in three types of common parasites - a tick nest ectoparasite (Ornithodoros maritimus), a tick-borne blood parasite (Babesia sp.), and a directly transmitted microbe such as avian influenza virus (WP5). We will then assess if combined stressors alter movement and if movement can, in turn, explain the structure of infectious agents at different spatial scales. In addition, the integration of this data with information on feeding regimes (from regurgitates and stable isotope analyses) will enable us to evaluate the degree to which health status and reproductive success are linked to the use of anthropogenic resources. A consortium of seven national and international partners with complementary skills and strong experience in marine systems will ensure project success. By using a widespread wildlife species frequently found in urban areas, the results of the EcoDIS project will be of both significant fundamental (i.e., effects of combined environmental stressors on wildlife population dynamics) and applied interest (i.e., pathogen circulation by wildlife and human exposure risk). Results may also enable us to use common species like YLGs, or their even their parasites, as indicator species of environmental quality. Finally, technical advances in quantifying microplastics in animal tissues are expected and will represent a major contribution toward characterizing the impact of this important environmental pollutant on animal populations.

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