EAPSI:Pesticide & Breeding Failure: Investigating the Link Using a Poorly Studied Australian Seabird

Gilmour Morgan E, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

Contaminants such as pesticides are ubiquitous in today's world. Though they are a useful agricultural tool, pesticides can also cause unknown harm to the surrounding environment and wildlife. In collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Lavers at the University of Tasmania, this project will investigate: 1) the exposure of an Australian seabird, the Great-winged Petrel (Pterodroma macroptera), to contaminants through its diet of fish and squid in Western Australia; and 2) the relationship between contaminants and Petrel breeding hormones. The researchers hypothesize that contaminants cause a decrease in breeding hormones, which could negatively affect the birds' breeding behaviors, possibly causing egg abandonment and nest failure. This collaboration provides a unique opportunity to: 1) research how contaminants affect seabirds in an area heavily-used for both agriculture and fisheries; and 2) provide data on a little-studied species. Petrels eat the same types of fish and squid that humans eat, so the results of this project will inform issues affecting human health. Contaminants such as organochlorines are ubiquitous in coastal areas, but transport to more oceanic habitats and thus, organisms, remains little-studied. The effect of organochlorines on wildlife vary among species, and although many studies report contaminant loads, there are few data on what specifically drives changes in behavior and physiology. This project will address this gap by evaluating organochlorine pesticides and concurrent concentrations of a breeding hormone (prolactin) in Great-winged Petrels (Pterodroma macroptera) in relation to their diet and foraging habitat characteristics. This project will collect blood samples from Petrels at breeding colonies in Western Australia; deploy GPS tracking tags on Petrels to study foraging ecology; and conduct lab analyses at RMIT University in Melbourne. This project?s results will provide information about organochlorines in fish and piscivorous birds in King George Sound, a highly productive area for fisheries that is adjacent to a large agricultural delta, and thereby provide information for human health. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Australian Academy of Science.