Bowen Lizabeth, Miles A Keith, Waters Shannon, Gustine Dave, Joly Kyle, Hilderbrand Grant
U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, University of California, Davis Field Station, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
National Park Service, Grand Teton National Park, PO Box 170, Moose, WY, 83012, USA.
Ecohealth. 2018 Mar;15(1):121-131. doi: 10.1007/s10393-017-1287-0. Epub 2017 Nov 22.
Increasingly, population- and ecosystem-level health assessments are performed using sophisticated molecular tools. Advances in molecular technology enable the identification of synergistic effects of multiple stressors on the individual physiology of different species. Brown bears (Ursus arctos) are an apex predator; thus, they are ideal candidates for detecting potentially ecosystem-level systemic perturbations using molecular-based tools. We used gene transcription to analyze 130 brown bear samples from three National Parks and Preserves in Alaska. Although the populations we studied are apparently stable in abundance and exist within protected and intact environments, differences in transcript profiles were noted. The most prevalent differences were among locations. The transcript patterns among groups reflect the influence of environmental factors, such as nutritional status, disease, and xenobiotic exposure. However, these profiles also likely represent baselines for each unique environment by which future measures can be made to identify early indication of population-level changes due to, for example, increasing Arctic temperatures. Some of those environmental changes are predicted to be potentially positive for brown bears, but other effects such as the manifestation of disease or indirect effects of oceanic acidification may produce negative impacts.
越来越多地，人们利用先进的分子工具进行种群和生态系统层面的健康评估。分子技术的进步使得识别多种压力源对不同物种个体生理机能的协同效应成为可能。棕熊（Ursus arctos）是顶级捕食者，因此，它们是使用基于分子的工具检测潜在的生态系统层面系统性扰动的理想候选对象。我们利用基因转录分析了来自阿拉斯加三个国家公园和保护区的130份棕熊样本。尽管我们研究的种群数量显然稳定，且存在于受保护的完整环境中，但仍注意到转录谱存在差异。最普遍的差异存在于不同地点之间。群体间的转录模式反映了环境因素的影响，如营养状况、疾病和接触外源性物质。然而，这些谱图也可能代表了每个独特环境的基线，通过这些基线，未来可以采取措施识别由于例如北极气温升高导致的种群水平变化的早期迹象。预计其中一些环境变化对棕熊可能是积极的，但其他影响，如疾病的显现或海洋酸化的间接影响，可能会产生负面影响。
