Genotoxicity in herring gulls (Larus argentatus) in Sweden and Iceland

Skarphéðinsdóttir, Halldóra; Hallgrímsson, Gunnar Þór; Hansson, Tomas; Hägerroth, Per-Åke; Liewenborg, Birgitta; Tjärnlund, Ulla; Åkerman, Gun; Baršienė, Janina; Balk, Lennart

doi:10.1016/j.mrgentox.2010.07.002

Cited by 22 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The level of erythrocyte damage that we found in butt‐exposed chicks (mean ± SD; 1.3 ± 0.96 ‰ micronuclei, 1.91 ± 1.33 ‰ binucleated cells, 1.09 ± 0.79 buds and 0.74 ± 0.87 nuclear bridges) is larger than the reported frequency of micronuclei in bird erythrocytes from 30 species (0.12 ± 0.21, range 0–1.06 ‰; Zúñiga‐González et al ., ), but this report is based mostly on captive (zoo) and domestic birds, each species represented by only 4 ± 3.1 (range 1–13) individuals of unknown (or unreported) history/condition and includes only two Passeriformes. Our data also indicate greater damage than that found by Skarphedinsdottir et al ., () in much larger (and longevous) free‐living herring gulls ( Larus argentatus ) exposed to urban pollution (range 0.18–0.28 ‰), thus we are confident that our data indicate that during the stay at the nest, the substances that are embedded in the smoked‐through cellulose are interfering with cell division in growing Mexican finch chicks. We have no information on the likelihood that this damage may have long‐term negative effects such as reduced survival in short‐lived passerine birds, yet nestling exposure to stress hormones – which promote oxidative stress and thus genotoxic damage (Risom et al ., ) – does reduce lifespan in captive zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ; Monaghan et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

There is no such a thing as a free cigarette; lining nests with discarded butts brings short‐term benefits, but causes toxic damage

Suárez-Rodríguez

Garcı́a

2014

J of Evolutionary Biology

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Adaptation to human-modified environments such as cities is poised to be a major component of natural history in the foreseeable future. Birds have been shown to adapt their vocalizations, use of nesting places and activity rhythms to the urban environments, and we have previously reported that some species, including the house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus), use cellulose from smoked cigarette butts as lining material and thus reduce the number of ectoparasites in their nests, probably because the nicotine repels arthropods. Nicotine is only one of hundreds of potentially harmful substances found in cigarette butts. Here, we investigated whether the presence of such chemicals is harmful for house finches adding cigarette butts to their nests. We found that hatching and fledging success and chick immune response were all positively correlated to the proportion of the nest that was made up of butts. However, the signs of genotoxicity in the blood cells also increased with the proportion of butt cellulose in the nests. Although we have not measured the effect of genotoxicity on post-fledging survival and breeding success, it seems that bringing cigarette butts to the nest has negative consequences that may counterbalance the benefits of using them as ectoparasites repellents.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

There is no such a thing as a free cigarette; lining nests with discarded butts brings short‐term benefits, but causes toxic damage

Suárez-Rodríguez

Garcı́a

2014

J of Evolutionary Biology

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“…Since foraging is not restricted to areas where cigarette butts are abundant, we have no evidence of sex-specific diets in these species, and given that butts are never so copious that they may substantially leak toxicants into the ecosystem, we think that our results cannot be explained as a result of species/sex differences in diet. We argue that nuclear abnormalities reveal physiological costs because they are the result of genotoxic damage, and thus can be a proxy to estimate oxidative stress (Bartsch, 2002;Valko et al, 2004) such as that generated by exposure to toxic substances (Fenech, 1993;DeMarini, 2004;Valko et al, 2004;Skarphedinsdottir et al, 2010;López Gordillo, 2012). In addition to revealing damage, abnormalities in the nuclei of erythrocytes can inform approximately when it took place.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic Nest Materials May Increase Breeding Costs for Urban Birds

2017

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Even in socially monogamous species, sexual conflict is one reason that often promotes differences in the roles of sexes during reproduction, which may lead to one sex making a disproportionate contribution, and thus incurring disproportionate costs, at particular moments of the breeding process. In Mexico City, a number of songbird species line their nests with fibers from discarded cigarette butts, which reduce ectoparasite load but are genotoxic. As male Passer domesticus make substantial contributions to nest building whereas male Carpodacus mexicanus do not contribute to nest building, we hypothesized that the toxic effects of exposure to cigarette butts should be greater for females C. mexicanus than for conspecific males, but that there should be little or no difference in P. domesticus. As expected there was more exogenous genotoxic damage in the red-blood cells of incubating female C. mexicanus the more cigarette butts were found in their nest, and much more than in their conspecific males. Damage in males was not associated to cigarette butts; it was initially lower than in females, but it increased near fledging, together with their breeding effort. In both male and female P. domesticus, however, genotoxic damage was equally apparent and greater the more cigarette butts were in the nest. The novel use of a toxic, anthropogenic parasite repellent by urban birds may be thus asymmetrically increasing the breeding costs paid by the member of the pair most involved in nest building and incubation.

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“…This is one of the traits that can at this point be considered too heterogenuos for a formal meta‐analysis, because the methodological approach in measuring oxidative stress varies largely between studies. So far, the studies have concentrated more on antioxidants like carotenoids, vitamins, or glutathione (eight out of 11 studies on oxidative status report only results on antioxidants); studies on oxidative damage to biomolecules are comparatively lacking (but see Skarphedinsdottir et al., ; and Herrera‐Duenas, Pineda, Antonio, & Aguirre, ). In addition, all of the avian urban studies so far have used blood cells and plasma, although recent studies in birds outside of an urbanization context indicate that oxidative‐stress levels among different tissues may not correlate (reviewed by Speakman et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is one of the traits that can at this point be considered too heterogenuos for a formal meta-analysis, because the methodological approach in measuring oxidative stress varies largely between studies. So far, the studies have concentrated more on antioxidants like carotenoids, vitamins, or glutathione (eight out of 11 studies on oxidative status report only results on antioxidants); studies on oxidative damage to biomolecules are comparatively lacking (but see Skarphedinsdottir et al, 2010;and Herrera-Duenas, Pineda, Antonio, & Aguirre, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…,Ausprey & Rodewald (2011),Stracey & Robinson (2012),Varner et al (2014),Evans, Ryder, Reitsma, Hurlbert, & Marra (2015),Rebolo-Ifran et al (2015),Minias (. (2008),Chavez-Zichinelli et al (2010),Davies et al (2015),Audet et al , & Hudelson (1998),Fokidis et al (2008),Geue & Partecke (2008),Bichet et al (2013),Jacquin et al (2013),,Delgado & French (2015),Bentz et al , Heeb, & Cezilly (2002),Evans, Gaston, Sharp, Mcgowan, Simeoni, et al , & Andersson (2005),Skarphedinsdottir et al (2010),,,Herrera-Duenas et al (2014),Giraudeau et al , Ots, & Møller (2004),Isaksson et al (2005),Isaksson, Mclaughlin, et al (2007),Isaksson, Von Post, et al (2007),,Grunst, Rotenberry, & Grunst (2014),, Giraudeau et al (2015), Herrera-Duenas et al (2014), Hõrak et al . (2008), Liker et al (2008), Evans, Evans, Gaston, Sharp, Mcgowan, Hatchwell, et al (2009), Fokidis, Hurley, Rogowski, Sweazea, & Deviche (2011), Seress et al (2011), Giraudeau et al (2015), Meillere et al (2015), Audet et al , Novoa, & Sabat (2002), Auman et al (2008), Liker et al (2008), Evans, Gaston, Sharp, Mcgowan, Hatchwell, et al (2009), Fokidis et al (2011), Seress et al (2011), Davies, Rodriguez, Sweazea, & Deviche (2013), Giraudeau & Mcgraw (2014), Giraudeau et al (2015), Meillere et al (2015), Audet et al Post, et al (2007), Auman et al (2008), Fokidis et al (2008), Liker et al (2008), Jones, Rodewald, & Shustack (2010), Seress et al (2011), Bokony, Seress, et al (2012), Bichet et al (2013), Cardilini, Weston, Nimmo, Dann, & Sherman (2013), Davies et al (2013), Jacquin et al (2013), Morrissey et al (2014), Meillere et al (2015), Audet et al (2016), Minias (.…”

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confidence: 99%

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A review of urban impacts on avian life‐history evolution: Does city living lead to slower pace of life?

Sepp

McGraw

Kaasik

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

126

145

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The concept of a pace-of-life syndrome describes inter- and intraspecific variation in several life-history traits along a slow-to-fast pace-of-life continuum, with long lifespans, low reproductive and metabolic rates, and elevated somatic defences at the slow end of the continuum and the opposite traits at the fast end. Pace-of-life can vary in relation to local environmental conditions (e.g. latitude, altitude), and here we propose that this variation may also occur along an anthropogenically modified environmental gradient. Based on a body of literature supporting the idea that city birds have longer lifespans, we predict that urban birds have a slower pace-of-life compared to rural birds and thus invest more in self maintenance and less in annual reproduction. Our statistical meta-analysis of two key traits related to pace-of-life, survival and breeding investment (clutch size), indicated that urban birds generally have higher survival, but smaller clutch sizes. The latter finding (smaller clutches in urban habitats) seemed to be mainly a characteristic of smaller passerines. We also reviewed urbanization studies on other traits that can be associated with pace-of-life and are related to either reproductive investment or self-maintenance. Though sample sizes were generally too small to conduct formal meta-analyses, published literature suggests that urban birds tend to produce lower-quality sexual signals and invest more in offspring care. The latter finding is in agreement with the adult survival hypothesis, proposing that higher adult survival prospects favour investment in fewer offspring per year. According to our hypothesis, differences in age structure should arise between urban and rural populations, providing a novel alternative explanation for physiological differences and earlier breeding. We encourage more research investigating how telomere dynamics, immune defences, antioxidants and oxidative damage in different tissues vary along the urbanization gradient, and suggest that applying pace-of-life framework to studies of variation in physiological traits along the urbanization gradient might be the next direction to improve our understanding of urbanization as an evolutionary process.

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Genotoxicity in herring gulls (Larus argentatus) in Sweden and Iceland

Cited by 22 publications

References 45 publications

There is no such a thing as a free cigarette; lining nests with discarded butts brings short‐term benefits, but causes toxic damage

There is no such a thing as a free cigarette; lining nests with discarded butts brings short‐term benefits, but causes toxic damage

Anthropogenic Nest Materials May Increase Breeding Costs for Urban Birds

A review of urban impacts on avian life‐history evolution: Does city living lead to slower pace of life?

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