Department of Agriculture, Nutrition, and Veterinary Sciences, University of Nevada, Reno, United States.
Abt Environmental Research, United States.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2017 Dec;146:98-103. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2017.05.028. Epub 2017 Jun 5.
In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill released 134 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico making it the largest oil spill in US history. The three month oil spill left tens of thousands of birds dead; however, the fate of tens of thousands of other migratory birds that were affected but did not immediately die is unknown. We used the homing pigeon as a surrogate species for migratory birds to investigate the effects of a single external oiling event on the flight performance of birds. Data from GPS data loggers revealed that lightly oiled pigeons took significantly longer to return home and spent more time stopped en route than unoiled birds. This suggests that migratory birds affected by the oil spill could have experienced long term flight impairment and delayed arrival to breeding, wintering, or crucial stopover sites and subsequently suffered reductions in survival and reproductive success.
2010 年，“深水地平线”号油井发生爆炸，约 1.34 亿加仑原油流入墨西哥湾，成为美国历史上最大的一起漏油事件。这场持续了 3 个月的漏油事故导致成千上万只鸟类死亡；然而，还有成千上万只受到影响但没有立即死亡的候鸟的命运却不得而知。我们使用家鸽作为候鸟的替代物种，来研究单次外部油污事件对鸟类飞行性能的影响。GPS 数据记录仪的数据显示，轻度油污的鸽子飞回家的时间明显延长，在途中停留的时间也比未受油污影响的鸽子多。这表明，受到漏油事件影响的候鸟可能长期存在飞行障碍，延迟到达繁殖地、越冬地或关键中途停留地，并随后导致存活率和繁殖成功率下降。
