Tesis doctoral de José Luis Roscales García
Exposure to contaminants, such as persistent organic pollutants (pops) is currently regarded a serious anthropogenic threat to marine predators and their food webs. Exposure to contaminants by marine wildlife is related to their trophic ecology, distribution and movements. However, the contribution of these biological features to contamination levels remains poorly understood in most marine predators, including seabirds. New methodologies, such as stable isotope analyses or a wide array of devices to track movement at different spatial and temporal scales can usefully provide new light into this issue. Although stable isotope signatures in marine wildlife provide valuable information about their trophic ecology, isotopic baseline levels also show geographical differences. Therefore, to understand isotopic differences among separate wildlife populations we first need to evaluate the influence of spatial variability in stable isotope signatures. In the present thesis, some ecological factors, mainly feeding ecology, breeding locality and movements, and their influence shaping the isotopic signatures and the contaminant burdens were examined in most procellariiformes breeding in the northeast atlantic ocean and the mediterranean sea. In particular, the isotopic signatures of carbon and nitrogen as well as pah, pcb and ddt burdens in seabirds were determined. In this study, firstly, we evaluate the relative influence of geographic origin and trophic ecology shaping stable isotope signatures and contaminant burdens in pelagic seabirds. Then we expose the spatial patterns in the isotopic signatures, ocs and pahs that emerge among mediterranean and northeast atlantic seabirds. Secondly, we show that the trophic ecology of each seabird species is fairly constant throughout their breeding distributions, but clearly differ among species, pointing out the marked relationship of seabird trophic ecology with their pcb, ddt and pah burdens. Overall, this study underlines the usefulness of combining environmental chemistry methodologies with new approaches in the study of animal ecology, showing the value of pelagic seabirds in marine contamination monitoring.
Datos académicos de la tesis doctoral «Entre la ecología y la química ambiental: las aves pelágicas como indicadores de la contaminación ambiental«
- Título de la tesis: Entre la ecología y la química ambiental: las aves pelágicas como indicadores de la contaminación ambiental
- Autor: José Luis Roscales García
- Universidad: Barcelona
- Fecha de lectura de la tesis: 29/10/2010
Dirección y tribunal
- Director de la tesis
- Jacob Gonzalez Solis Bou
- Tribunal
- Presidente del tribunal: María asunción Borrell thió
- María cristina Fossi (vocal)
- (vocal)
- (vocal)