Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Birds and The PCBs talks about....Birds and PCBs

When I started this blog, I didn't think I was going to literally be blogging about birds and PCBs. But apparently I wrong.

I now present you with a heartbreaking story of songbirds, toxic chemicals, and tainted love. Sigh.

Researchers have found that chickadees that are exposed to very small, allowable levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can’t keep a tune as well as other birds. Like many bird species, in chickadees, the females go for males with the best songs. So, PCB-exposed birds might lose out on mates, says Sara DeLeon, an ecologist at Cornell University.

The Cornell scientists examined chickadees living along New York’s Hudson River, not far from a General Electric power plant that used PCB insulators from 1907 until the 1970s, dumping some 500,000 kilograms of the toxic chemical into the river. The US government ordered GE to clean the PCB-contaminated waters, one of the country’s largest waste cleanups. Even though current levels are below EPA's regulatory limits and thus deemed "safe," traces remain in many sites on the river, and are impacting wildlife in subtle ways

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are a class of yucky chemicals that were banned in the 1970s for being persistent organic pollutants (POPs). They are found to bioaccumulate in people and animals. They also have subtle effects in human, such as influencing sex ratios.

While the lackluster love songs of the PCB-contaminated birds could be a warning to the female chickadees that their mates aren't healthy, this could pose some serious problems for bird populations. "[E]ven female choice against chemically tainted birds, as is the case with the Hudson River chickadees, can threaten local birds if males don’t seem a good mating prospect and females move elsewhere in search of untainted love, DeLeon says. 'Populations could end up declining and birds might not end up living there.'"

And there you have it. Heartbreak, heartache, and chickadees.

Source: New Scientist

6 comments:

Brian said...

That is so unbelievably tragic. sigh.

GoSustaino said...

The classic PCB, endocrine distributor story that emerges again, yet now with birds. This scary theme repeats itself from frogs loosing their "croaks" which impacted their ability to find a mate (or their prince charming). You can read more about atrazine and frogs in many public sources. Great post!

GoSustaino said...

Where's the new posts?

GoSustaino said...

It's November...no recent posts?

Aviva said...

Unfortunately, grad school has been kicking the Birds and PCBs butt lately... new posts coming shortly though. Thanks for keeping me on track, Sustaino!

Jon said...

OMG when I lost my croak I thought my mating season was over, but then my doctor prescribed some antipolychlorinated biphenyls and now I lay thousands of eggs a day. Thanks Pfizer!