Biologists Find At Least 1 Form Of Phthalate In Every AK Seabird Tested (910 Birds, 10 Species)
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With this in mind, Causey has so far collected and salvaged 910 seabirds of 10 different species from the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge with the Tiĝlax̂’s help over the past decade—primarily from the Aleutians. Though analysis is ongoing, preliminary findings are alarming. Within the past five or so years, he says, the birds’ diets have become more varied. Northern fulmars, for example, a relative of the albatross, primarily eat krill—a tiny floating crustacean—but now seem to be leaning ever more heavily on other kinds of plankton.
“When you see widespread increasing variability, it means that the ecosystem is going through a change,” he says. And if that change ultimately means the seabirds’ favored foods are harder to come by near the islands where they rear their young, it could be one factor driving population declines. Seabirds are capable of foraging over vast distances, so they can follow food—to a point. “Until birds can figure out how to lay their nests on water,” he says, “they’re stuck to an island to breed.”
Each collected bird supports not just the stable isotope project but several others as well. One graduate student examines samples for novel forms of influenza and other viruses that could harm people—an increasing concern as animals shift their ranges because of climate change. One of Causey’s colleagues collects the birds’ parasites. Some tissues are measured for the presence of toxins from harmful algal blooms, another byproduct of Bering Sea warming; others are sampled for plastics and their byproducts. Specific data for each animal is also entered into vertnet.org, an international catalog of specimens, where other researchers can use it, too.
Padula first started helping Causey as a side project a decade ago while completing a master’s degree on fish, then began her interdisciplinary doctorate in 2014, part of which assesses the collected birds’ exposure to phthalates, a class of endocrine-disrupting chemicals used to make plastics more pliant. Like the signs of ecosystem change, the chemical news isn’t encouraging. Every individual of every species tested has tissue contaminated with at least one form of phthalate. Gathering such information makes collecting worthwhile, despite the controversy it can bring, Causey believes. His target species aren’t rare, and most of these projects require a whole animal. And while it is possible to sample feathers from live birds, he adds, in the dense colonies of the refuge, that would likely be more disruptive to breeding populations than gathering a few at sea under a carefully regulated US Fish and Wildlife Service permit.
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