Lifshitz Natalia, St Clair Colleen Cassady
Department of Biological Sciences , University of Alberta , Z-708, 11455 Saskatchewan Drive , Edmonton , Alberta , Canada T6G 2E9.
Conserv Physiol. 2016 Aug 26;4(1):cow028. doi: 10.1093/conphys/cow028. eCollection 2016.
Growth in human populations causes habitat degradation for other species, which is usually gauged by physical changes to landscapes. Corresponding habitat degradation to air and water is also common, but its effects on individuals can be difficult to detect until they result in the decline or disappearance of populations. More proactive measures of pollution usually combine abiotic samples of soil, water or air with invasive sampling of expendable species, but this approach sometimes creates ethical dilemmas and has limited application for threatened species. Here, we describe the potential to measure the effects of pollution on many species of birds and fish by using ornamental traits that are expressed as coloured skin, feathers and scales. As products of sexual selection, these traits are sensitive to environmental conditions, thereby providing honest information about the condition of their bearers as ready-made biomarkers. We review the documented effects of several classes of pollutants, including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, industry-related compounds and metals, on two classes of colour pigments, namely melanins and carotenoids. We find that several pollutants impede the expression of both carotenoids and brown melanin, while enhancing traits coloured by black melanin. We also review some of the current limitations of using ornamental colour as an indicator of pollution exposure, suggest avenues for future research and speculate about how advances in robotics and remote imagery will soon make it possible to measure these traits remotely and in a non-invasive manner. Wider awareness of this potential by conservation managers could foster the development of suitable model species and comparative metrics and lay a foundation for pollution monitoring that is more generalizable and biologically relevant than existing standards.
人类人口增长导致其他物种的栖息地退化，这通常通过景观的物理变化来衡量。空气和水相应的栖息地退化也很常见，但其对个体的影响在导致种群数量下降或消失之前可能难以察觉。更积极的污染测量方法通常将土壤、水或空气的非生物样本与可消耗物种的侵入性采样相结合，但这种方法有时会产生伦理困境，并且对濒危物种的应用有限。在这里，我们描述了利用鸟类和鱼类等多种物种的观赏性特征（如彩色的皮肤、羽毛和鳞片）来测量污染影响的潜力。作为性选择的产物，这些特征对环境条件敏感，从而作为现成的生物标志物提供有关其携带者状况的真实信息。我们综述了几类污染物，包括药物、农药、工业相关化合物和金属，对两类色素（即黑色素和类胡萝卜素）的已记录影响。我们发现，几种污染物会阻碍类胡萝卜素和棕色黑色素的表达，同时增强由黑色黑色素着色的特征。我们还综述了目前将观赏性颜色用作污染暴露指标的一些局限性，提出了未来研究的方向，并推测机器人技术和遥感图像的进展将如何很快使以非侵入性方式远程测量这些特征成为可能。保护管理人员对这一潜力的更广泛认识可以促进合适的模型物种和比较指标的开发，并为比现有标准更具普遍性和生物学相关性的污染监测奠定基础。
