Jerome Fort

ARCTOX

'A pan-Arctic netwrol to track mercury contamination across Arctic marine food webs'

PI: J. Fort - Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés (LIENSs, La Rochelle)

ARCTOX is funded by the CNRS See-Life Program (Lont-term monitoring in ecology and evolution)

Launched in 2014, ARCTOX is an international research network monitoring contaminant exposure in Arctic and sub-Arctic seabirds. Bringing together more than 70 collaborators across over 75 breeding sites and more than 25 species, the network provides a unique circumpolar perspective on contaminant exposure in marine ecosystems. Through the annual collection and analysis of blood and feather samples, ARCTOX identifies contamination hotspots and coldspots, investigates the ecological and environmental drivers of exposure, and tracks temporal trends. ARCTOX contributes to a better understanding of contaminant dynamics in a rapidly changing Arctic and provides essential knowledge for assessing environmental pollution and its potential impacts on seabird populations.

ARCTIC-STRESSORS

‘Combined effects of multiple environmental stressors on Arctic seabirds’

PI: J. Fort - Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés (LIENSs, La Rochelle)

ARCTIC-STRESSORS is a research project funded by the French National Agency for Research (ANR JCJC) from 2021 to 2026.

The ARCTIC-STRESSORS project proposes to use a multidisciplinary approach to investigate at the pan-Arctic scale the combined effects of multiple environmental stressors (pollution, sea-ice loss and warming temperatures) on Arctic seabirds and ultimately on Arctic marine ecosystems. More specifically, this project will aim to:

1) Investigate the importance of sea ice for Arctic seabirds and how melting sea ice might enhance bird exposure to mercury (Hg), and how these two combined environmental stressors could affect bird behavior and fitness.

2) Study the impacts of Hg on seabird thermoregulatory capacities and how the combined temperature increase and Hg contamination will affect bird energetic niches and ultimately their distribution through the Arctic.

ADACLIM

‘Responses of Arctic marine birds to environmental constraints in the context of climate change’

co-PIs: D. Grémillet (CEBC, Chizé) & J. Fort (LIENSs, La Rochelle)

ADACLIM is a long-term monitoring research program funded by the French Polar Institute (IPEV) since 2005. Its general objective is to provide a better understanding of the impacts of environmental changes on Arctic seabirds. To this end, it focuses on little auks (Alle alle) from East Greenland. Little auks are the most numerous seabird species in the North Atlantic Arctic (40-80 million individuals) and powerful ecological indicators of regional food webs.

More specifically, within the 2012-2016 period, ADACLIM will study the multi-year impact of ocean warming on (1) the foraging behaviour and fitness (reproductive performance and adult survival) of little auks breeding along the Greenland Sea, (2) their migratory strategies during the winter phase in the Atlantic. Further, it will use an experimental approach to test the hypothesis that little auks are capable of filter-feeding, a functional trait which should greatly help them cope with climate-induced shifts in prey resources. Finally, ADACLIM will evaluate levels of oil-associated pollutants in little auks during the last 25 years, as well as across areas of contrasting anthropogenic influence within their North Atlantic summer and winter distribution range.