European Starlings (<i>Sturnus vulgaris</i>) As Sentinels of Urban Air Pollution: A Comprehensive Approach from Noninvasive to Post Mortem Investigation

North, Michelle A.; Kinniburgh, David; Smits, Judit E. G.

doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b01861

Cited by 14 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Environmental conditions may explain a large quota of the variance in markers of oxidative status (e.g. Cohen et al., 2009; Costantini & Dell'Omo, 2006; Isaksson, 2013; North, Kinniburgh, & Smits, 2017). Changes in weather conditions may, for example, affect the individual oxidative status owing to a direct effect of temperature and rainfalls on the organism's metabolism, or indirectly affecting availability of prey (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of selective logging on the oxidative status of tropical understorey birds

Messina

Edwards

AbdElgawad

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Ecology

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1. Selective logging is the dominant form of human disturbance in tropical forests, driving changes in the abundance of vertebrate and invertebrate populations relative to undisturbed old-growth forests. 2. A key unresolved question is understanding which physiological mechanisms underlie different responses of species and functional groups to selective logging. Regulation of oxidative status is thought to be one major physiological mechanism underlying the capability of species to cope with environmental changes. 3. Using a correlational cross-sectional approach, we compared a number of oxidative status markers among 15 understorey bird species in unlogged and selectively logged forest in Borneo in relation to their feeding guild. We then tested how variation of markers between forest types was associated with that in population abundance. 4. Birds living in logged forests had a higher activity of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase and a different regulation of the glutathione cycle compared to conspecific birds in unlogged forest. However, neither oxidative damage nor oxidized glutathione differed between forest types. We also found that omnivores and insectivores differed significantly in all markers related to the key cellular antioxidant glutathione irrespective of the forest type. Species with higher levels of certain antioxidant markers in a given type of forest were less abundant in that forest type compared to the other. 5. Our results suggest that there was little long-term effect of logging (last logging rotation occurred ~15 years prior to the study) on the oxidative status of understorey bird species. However, it is unclear if this was owing to plasticity or evolutionary change. Our correlative results also point to a potential negative association between some antioxidants and population abundance irrespective of the forest type.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of selective logging on the oxidative status of tropical understorey birds

Messina

Edwards

AbdElgawad

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Ecology

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“…Recently, ecologists have started to either experimentally manipulate or quantify variation in single or multiple urban factors and relate this to physiological markers (e.g. Raap et al, 2016;Casasole et al, 2017;McLay et al, 2017;North et al, 2017;Salmón et al, 2018a). Among these studies, only McLay et al (2017) link the physiological effects caused by artificial light to measures of fitness.…”

Section: Urbanisation Gradientmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban ecophysiology: beyond costs, stress and biomarkers

Isaksson

2020

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Natural habitats are rapidly declining due to urbanisation, with a concomitant decline in biodiversity in highly urbanised areas. Yet thousands of different species have colonised urban environments. These organisms are exposed to novel urban conditions, which are sometimes beneficial, but most often challenging, such as increased ambient temperature, chemicals, noise and light pollution, dietary alterations and disturbance by humans. Given the fundamental role of physiological responses in coping with such conditions, certain physiological systems such as the redox system, metabolism and hormones are thought to specifically influence organisms’ ability to persist and cope with urbanisation. However, these physiological systems often show mixed responses to urbanisation. Does this mean that some individuals, populations or species are resilient to the urban environmental challenges? Or is something missing from our analyses, leading us to erroneous conclusions regarding the impact of urbanisation? To understand the impact of urbanisation, I argue that a more integrated mechanistic and ecological approach is needed, along with experiments, in order to fully understand the physiological responses; without knowledge of their ecological and evolutionary context, physiological measures alone can be misinterpreted. Furthermore, we need to further investigate the causes of and capacity for individual plasticity in order to understand not only the impact of urbanisation, but also species resilience. I argue that abiotic and biotic urban factors can interact (e.g. pollution with micro- and macronutrients) to either constrain or relax individual physiological responses – and, thereby, plasticity – on a temporal and/or spatial scale, which can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the impact of urbanisation.

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“…The effects of air pollution on wildlife, particularly after industrial accidents, has been widely noted, serving to enhance public awareness of some the ecological consequences of anthropogenic activity. − The avian respiratory system has specialized adaptations optimizing gas exchange compared with mammalian lungs, both at rest and during exercise, making birds more sensitive to many airborne compounds and, therefore, early sentinels of inhaled toxicants . Many species of wild birds share our urban outdoor environment, potentially providing insight into the effects of urban contaminants on the health of other urban residents. − Field studies provide insight into some of the possible effects of air pollution on wild birds in a natural context, but the many confounding factors inherent to field research make it difficult to detect subtle changes in health …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomarker Sensitivity to Vehicle Exhaust in Experimentally Exposed European Starlings

North

Rodríguez-Estival

Smits

2017

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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The effects of vehicle-related emissions on health has been a long-standing question in human health sciences; however, the toxicology of chronic exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of these complex mixtures has not been characterized in wild birds. Adult European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) were exposed to vehicle emissions, with combined benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) concentrations totaling 13.3 μg/m over 20 days of exposure for 5 h per day. Exposed birds had significantly lower cell-mediated immunity (measured using phytohaemagglutinin skin test, p < 0.0001), thyroxine (T4, p = 0.042), and glutathione (GSH, p = 0.034) concentrations than control birds. There was no difference in body condition, antibody response to vaccination, triiodothyronine (T3), hepatic biotransformation (7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase activity), or oxidative stress (thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances and ratios of reduced to oxidized GSH) or organ masses between exposed and control birds. This study supports findings of previous studies examining wild birds exposed to these air contaminants and raises concern that environmentally relevant concentrations of common urban volatile pollutants may have measurable effects on health.

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European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) As Sentinels of Urban Air Pollution: A Comprehensive Approach from Noninvasive to Post Mortem Investigation

Cited by 14 publications

References 56 publications

Impacts of selective logging on the oxidative status of tropical understorey birds

Impacts of selective logging on the oxidative status of tropical understorey birds

Urban ecophysiology: beyond costs, stress and biomarkers

Biomarker Sensitivity to Vehicle Exhaust in Experimentally Exposed European Starlings

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