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Remote marine areas of the Arctic have become a sink for pollutants like Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), transported long distances from southern latitudes. This presence of contaminants is creating pressure on Arctic organisms. As such, Svalbard´s wildlife has been monitored for decades to follow temporal trends of pollutants, in addition to better understanding the effects of pollutants on Arctic wildlife.
Seabirds are a key group of Arctic animals that are particularly sensitive to the pollutants’ toxicity via effects on behavior, demography and long-term population viability. Understanding how pollutants affect population viability is essential to protect Arctic wildlife but has been an understudied topic in marine ecology.
Two populations of female common eider (Somateria mollissima) have been monitored in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard) and Grindøya (Troms) since 2007 and 1984, respectively. Concentrations of POPs have been analyzed in eiders blood samples, between 2007 and 2009 for Kongsfjorden and from 2005 to 2009 for Grindøya. Previous studies found higher concentrations of HCB (Hexachlorobenzene) for common eiders breeding in Kongsfjorden, while it is the concentrations of PCB (polychlorinated bipheyls) that are the highest for the common eiders breeding in Grindøya. Additionally, the adult survival is higher Kongsfjorden compared to Grindøya common eiders. However, the interaction between those different concentrations of POPs and the adult survival of those two populations have not been studied yet.
Here, we will investigate whether POPs may affect adult survival of female common eiders breeding both in Kongsfjorden and Grindøya. If the POP levels are sufficiently high to induce health effects, we predict that higher concentrations of POPs will negatively affect adult survival.
2025
2025
2025
2025