PMID- 37072083
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20230516
LR  - 20230520
IS  - 1096-0953 (Electronic)
IS  - 0013-9351 (Linking)
VI  - 228
DP  - 2023 Jul 1
TI  - A retrospective investigation of feather corticosterone in a highly contaminated 
      white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) population.
PG  - 115923
LID - S0013-9351(23)00715-6 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115923 [doi]
AB  - Exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as organochlorines (OCs) 
      and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), is associated with adverse health 
      effects in wildlife. Many POPs have been banned and consequently their 
      environmental concentrations have declined. To assess both temporal trends of 
      POPs and their detrimental impacts, raptors are extensively used as biomonitors 
      due to their high food web position and high contaminant levels. White-tailed 
      eagles (WTEs; Haliaeetus albicilla) in the Baltic ecosystem represent a sentinel 
      species of environmental pollution, as they have suffered population declines due 
      to reproductive failure caused by severe exposure to 
      dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) during 
      the 1960s through 1980s. However, there is a lack of long-term studies that cover 
      a wide range of environmental contaminants and their effects at the individual 
      level. In this study, we used 135 pooled samples of shed body feathers collected 
      in 1968-2012 from breeding WTE pairs in Sweden. Feathers constitute a temporal 
      archive for substances incorporated into the feather during growth, including 
      corticosterone, which is the primary avian glucocorticoid and a stress-associated 
      hormone. Here, we analysed the WTE feather pools to investigate annual variations 
      in feather corticosterone (fCORT), POPs (OCs and PBDEs), and stable carbon and 
      nitrogen isotopes (SIs; dietary proxies). We examined whether the expected 
      fluctuations in POPs affected fCORT (8-94 pg. mm(-1)) in the WTE pairs. Despite 
      clear temporal declining trends in POP concentrations (p < 0.01), we found no 
      significant associations between fCORT and POPs or SIs (p > 0.05 in all cases). 
      Our results do not support fCORT as a relevant biomarker of contaminant-mediated 
      effects in WTEs despite studying a highly contaminated population. However, 
      although not detecting a relationship between fCORT, POP contamination and diet, 
      fCORT represents a non-destructive and retrospective assessment of long-term 
      stress physiology in wild raptors otherwise not readily available.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
FAU - Hansen, Elisabeth
AU  - Hansen E
AD  - UiT - the Arctic University of Norway, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, 
      Hansine Hansens Veg 18, NO-9019, Tromso, Norway. Electronic address: 
      elisabeth.hansen@uit.no.
FAU - Sun, Jiachen
AU  - Sun J
AD  - College of Marine Life Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, CN-266003, 
      Shandong, China.
FAU - Helander, Bjorn
AU  - Helander B
AD  - Swedish Museum of Natural History, Department of Environmental Research and 
      Monitoring, Box 50007, SE-10405, Stockholm, Sweden.
FAU - Bustnes, Jan Ove
AU  - Bustnes JO
AD  - Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Framsenteret, Hjalmar Johansens 
      Gate 14, NO-9296, Tromso, Norway.
FAU - Eulaers, Igor
AU  - Eulaers I
AD  - Fram Centre, Norwegian Polar Institute, NO-9296, Tromso, Norway.
FAU - Jaspers, Veerle L B
AU  - Jaspers VLB
AD  - Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 
      Hogskoleringen 5, 7491, Trondheim, Norway.
FAU - Covaci, Adrian
AU  - Covaci A
AD  - Toxicological Centre, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of 
      Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, BE-2610, Wilrijk, Belgium.
FAU - Eens, Marcel
AU  - Eens M
AD  - Behavioural and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of 
      Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, BE-2610, Wilrijk, Belgium.
FAU - Bourgeon, Sophie
AU  - Bourgeon S
AD  - UiT - the Arctic University of Norway, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, 
      Hansine Hansens Veg 18, NO-9019, Tromso, Norway.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20230416
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Environ Res
JT  - Environmental research
JID - 0147621
RN  - W980KJ009P (Corticosterone)
RN  - 0 (Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers)
RN  - DFC2HB4I0K (Polychlorinated Biphenyls)
RN  - 0 (Environmental Pollutants)
RN  - 0 (Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - *Eagles
MH  - Corticosterone/analysis
MH  - Feathers
MH  - Retrospective Studies
MH  - Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers/analysis
MH  - Ecosystem
MH  - Environmental Monitoring/methods
MH  - *Polychlorinated Biphenyls/analysis
MH  - *Environmental Pollutants/analysis
MH  - *Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated/analysis
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Biological endpoint
OT  - Brominated flame retardants
OT  - Non-destructive biomonitoring
OT  - Physiological effect
OT  - Sentinel species
OT  - Stable isotopes
OT  - Steroid hormones
OT  - Stress response
COIS- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known 
      competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared 
      to influence the work reported in this paper.
EDAT- 2023/04/19 06:00
MHDA- 2023/05/16 06:42
CRDT- 2023/04/18 06:00
PHST- 2023/01/27 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2023/03/09 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2023/04/14 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2023/05/16 06:42 [medline]
PHST- 2023/04/19 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2023/04/18 06:00 [entrez]
AID - S0013-9351(23)00715-6 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115923 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Environ Res. 2023 Jul 1;228:115923. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115923. Epub 2023 
      Apr 16.