DNA damage in arctic avian predators: baseline, sensitivity to damage and association to contaminant exposure. RiS ID: 10093

This master project is an associated part of the AVITOX research project (RiS ID: 6818) investigating persistent pollutants in avian top predators in the Arctic. AVITOX aims to "generate new knowledge about anthropogenic impacts on marine ecosystems", Individuals of common eider, black-legged kittiwake, glaucous gull, and arctic skua will be sampled during incubation and/or chick rearing period and blood samples will be taken from the brachial vein. Sampling of birds will be done in collaboration with different research groups involved in the AVITOX project working with their respective bird species. Genotoxicity will be assessed by the comet assay, and fresh blood samples will be used to assess baseline DNA damage. To assess species differences in sensitivity, experiments on sampled blood will be conducted involving untreated controls, and samples exposed to different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. Analysis of POPs will be made by NILU (Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Tromsø) where plasma samples will be measured for common POPs and related to DNA damage.