EcoDIS
‘Disease ecology in a modified world: Linking combined environmental stressors, population dynamics and movement ecology to understand the circulation of infectious agents’
PI: K. McCoy (MIVEGEC, Montpellier)
Scientific coordinator for partner LIENSs
EcoDIS is a research project funded by the French National Agency for Research (ANR PRC) from 2021 to 2025.
Environmental pollutants and pathogens can have negative impacts on wildlife health and population dynamics. While their effects are often sub-lethal or weak individually, little is known 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, to study how levels of pollutants (metallic trace elements & plastics) and parasites in the Yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) alter their reproductive success, population dynamics and movement patterns, and subsequently modify the circulation of infectious agents at different spatial scales. By using a widespread wildlife species frequently found in urban areas, results will be of both significant fundamental (i.e., effects of environmental stressors on wildlife population dynamics) and applied interest (i.e., pathogen circulation by wildlife and human exposure risk).
BioenergArc
‘Bioenergetic Effects of Anthropogenic Contaminants and Climate Change on a Keystone Arctic Seabird’
co-PI: Melissa Grunst and J. Fort (LIENSs, La Rochelle)
BioenergArc is a research project funded by the European Commission (Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions to M. Grunst) from 2021 to 2023.
BioenergArc will investigate the combined effects of climate change and contaminant exposure on seabird bioenergetics and thermoregulation, effects which are especially pronounced in the high Arctic. To this end, it will focus on a little auk (Alle alle) populations in East Greenland and will aim to:
1) Elucidate whether exposure to a suite of contaminants (methylmercury, organochlorines, perfluoroalkyls) affects resting metabolic rate and thermoregulatory capacity in a fashion that could undermine the capacity to cope with climate change
2) Examine whether contaminant exposure affects field metabolic rate, activity patterns and responses to increased workloads
3) Investigate whether variation in thermoregulatory capacity and energy budgeting affects spatial habitat use and fitness
BehavToxArc
‘Behavioural ecotoxicology meets climate change: Interactive effects of mercury pollution and climate change on behaviour, physiology and fitness in a keystone arctic seabird’
co-PI: Andrea Grunst and J. Fort (LIENSs, La Rochelle)
BehavToxArc is a research project funded by the European Commission (Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions to A. Grunst) from 2020 to 2022.
BehavToxArc will investigate the effects of contaminants on animal ecophysiology and behaviour, alone or in interactions with climate change, using a keystone arctic seabird, the little auk (Alle alle). Based on data collection from two colonies (East Greenland and Svalbard) that are experiencing different environmental conditions and climate change impacts, the project will aim to:
1) Use ultralight GPSs and accelerometers devices to collect unique behavioural data, which will be linked to state-of-the-art Hg measurements, and complemented by a long-term dataset (from accelerometers since 2009) in order to study the effects of Hg on the behaviour and ecophysiology of little auks.
2) Explore whether disruption of behaviour or stress physiology by Hg might limit adjustments to environmental change.
3) Investigate cross-generational effects of Hg exposure in the context of climate change, focusing on telomeres.
MAMBA
‘Mercury in Arctic Marine Biota: Sources, Levels and Impacts’
PI: J. Fort - Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés (LIENSs, La Rochelle)
MAMBA was a research project funded by the French National Agency for Research (ANR Tremplin ERC) from 2017 to 2018.
This project aimed to initiate the large scale study of mercury in Arctic seabirds and marine ecosystems.
ARCTOX
‘Sea-ice shrinking and increasing human activities in the Arctic: what risks for the avian biodiversity’
PI: J. Fort - Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés (LIENSs, La Rochelle)
ARCTOX was a research program funded by the European Commission (Marie Curie Career Integration Grant) from 2014 to 2017.
ARCTOX overall objective was to study contaminant levels in Arctic marine food webs, and the impacts of these contaminants on the seabird community. Indeed, climate change is leading to a rapid change in the Arctic cryosphere, bound to profoundly affect the functioning of Arctic marine ecosystems. Among other threats, such modifications might lead, through the expansion of human industries or the release of pollutants trapped in ice since decades to the ocean, to an increase of pollutant levels in Arctic ecosystems. These pollutants have extremely toxic effects on organisms and could therefore have important impacts on the biodiversity, food-webs structure and ecosystems functioning. More specifically, ARCTOX is focused on Mercury (Hg) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), two of the most toxic pollutants which recently raised major environmental concerns.
To this end, ARCTOX is based on four main research axes:
1. Define long-term temporal and seasonal variations of the contamination of Arctic marine food webs by using the seabird community as bio-indicator.
2. Study impacts of pollutants on the behaviour, ecophysiology, reproductive success and survival of Arctic seabirds from differently exposed regions, as well as on their energetic niche and distribution. To this end, ARCTOX is focused on two little auk populations from East Greenland and Spitsbergen and combines field, experimental and modelling approaches.
3. Set-up an international, pan-Arctic, sampling network based on existing field campaigns that will allow to monitor exposure of the seabird community to pollutants (Hg and PAH) at large spatial scale. This network will therefore help defining sensitive areas for the avian community and the marine biodiversity in the Arctic that might require a particular attention and protection in terms of pollution.
PARCS
‘Pollution of Arctic Systems’
PI: K. Law (LATMOS, Paris)
PARCS is an inter-disciplinary project involving experts from 19 French labs and several international institutes to provide a comprehensive understanding about the sources and fate of Arctic pollution and its impacts on climate, ecosystems and human society. More specifically, it aims to promote interactions between different disciplines working on air pollution (e.g. aerosols, ozone), climate (aerosol-cloud interactions), toxic contaminants such as mercury and persistent organic pollutants, impacts on ecosystems (contaminants in seabirds, pollutant cycling in marine/snow environments), and societal impacts and risks (air pollution).
To this end, PARCS addresses 4 major research objectives :
1. Improve the characterization of local pollutant emissions relative to long-range pollution transport from mid-latitude sources, through a combination of new measurements, community based risk assessments and pollution monitoring.
2. Better understand interactions between natural cycles and anthropogenic pollution, including pollutant wet/dry deposition, quantification of natural sources (relative to anthropogenic sources), pollutant recycling at the snow/ice-atmosphere interface, and quantification of riverine mercury fluxes.
3. Examine impacts of pollutants on marine biogeochemistry, nutrients and oceanic emissions, as well as improve the assessment of marine mercury cycling and contaminant impacts on Arctic fauna (seabirds).
4. improve the understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions and direct/indirect effects on climate.
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