FORURENS: Persistent organic pollutants and natural stress in avian top predators of northern ecosystems; potential vulnerability to environ

Northern ecosystems face two major long-term challenges caused by human activity; climate change and persistent organic pollutants. Climate change will increase pressure on northern populations by altering a wide range of stressors (cause food deprivation , introduce new pathogens, etc.). To assess the health status of northern ecosystems and their ability to cope with changing environments, it is thus imperative to understand the current stress caused by persistent environmental pollutants. When such poll utants increase in ecosystems they will quickly be channelled to and concentrated in the systems top predators. Here we propose a study of three species of predatory birds which are top predators in different broadly defined ecosystems in northern Norway, including mountainous/alpine -, woodland -, and coastal ecosystems. We will determine how indicators of stress at different levels (stress hormones, immune stress and fitness components) relate to residues of different organic pollutants (both legacy POP s and new organic pollutants) in parents and young. In addition, we will study how the different factors, including stress hormones, diet composition, parasites and pollutants, may interact to cause adverse effects on immune systems of nestlings, life-his tory traits such as reproductive performance and adult survival.