Threats to arctic bird populations (BIRDHEALTH)

Due to short arctic summers and limited food resources, arctic birds typically have an exhausting breeding season where they rely upon accumulated body reserves for breeding. This leaves arctic animals very vulnerable to environmental stressors during breeding. This international project will lead to improved understanding of how infectious organisms and pollution may affect the health, reproduction, and survival of arctic bird populations. It will quantify geographic variation in individual levels of pollutants and in the prevalence of selected pathogens. The effect of these stressors on parameters related to individual fitness will be assessed through individual health monitoring, experiments, and large scale comparisons of different populations from different climatic zones with different pollution levels.

The project is lead by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Tromsø branch and involves other seabird specialists from Norway, Sweden, Russia, and the Netherlands. As a core participant, Akvaplan-niva is providing knowledge and expertise on pollutant transfer through food webs connected to seabirds.

Financed by the Norwegian Research Council IPY program.

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