Authors: Cristóbal Pérez Marta Lores Alberto Velando
Publish Date: 2010/06/09
Volume: 163, Issue: 4, Pages: 875-884
Abstract
It has been suggested that conditiondependent signals may be a useful measure of environmental quality In this study we tested the hypothesis that oil pollution enhances oxidative stress and impairs expression of a carotenoidbased signal in a wild population of the yellowlegged gull Larus michahellis During the courtship period a group of gulls were fed a supplementary diet containing heavy fuel oil from the Prestige oil spill and were compared with control gulls fed a similar supplementary diet without fuel oil Blood levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons the most toxic components of crude oils were higher 30 in the Prestige oilfed gulls than in the control gulls Plasma concentrations of vitamin E and carotenoids were also significantly higher in the Prestige oilfed gulls 31 and 27 respectively Although the plasma levels of lipid peroxidation markers were higher 13 in gulls fed with Prestige oil than in the control gulls these differences were not significant possibly because of the small number of gulls analyzed The red bill spot was significantly smaller 16 in the oilfed gulls than in the control individuals This study provides the first experimental evidence that a carotenoidbased signal in a freeliving seabird is affected by exposure to oil pollution and is hence indicative of environmental quality Since the yellowlegged gull belongs to a complex of species widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere the method described may constitute a useful tool for evaluating sublethal effects of oil spills in seabirdsWe are grateful to the staff at the Parque Nacional MarítimoTerrestres de las Islas Atlánticas de Galicia and Naviera Mar de Ons for logistic support and Carmen Díez and Julio Eiroa for help in the fieldwork We also want thank to Carlos Alonso Álvarez Esa Lehikoinen and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments that clearly improved this manuscript The present study was funded by the by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacíon y Ciencia CGL200611928 Parque Nacional MarítimoTerrestre de las Islas Atlánticas de Galicia gave working permissions and approved the experiment
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