Abolins-Abols Mikus, Yeager Ray, Turner Jay, Smith Ted, Bhatnagar Aruni
Department of Biology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, United States.
Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, United States.
Front Physiol. 2025 Jun 25;16:1603811. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1603811. eCollection 2025.
Air pollution is known to negatively affect avian health, and some air pollutants have been suggested to drive changes in bird population size at a regional level. Although several studies have investigated the effect of air pollution on bird health, how air pollution exposure is associated with avian physiology at a local scale is not known. Moreover, the extent to which avian health may be affected by vegetation, which modulates pollutant deposition and dispersion, has not been assessed. Here we combine high-resolution mapping of major air pollutants (NO and ultrafine particles) and vegetation types with dense spatial sampling of American robins, an urban exploiter, to ask how air pollution exposure, vegetation, and their interaction predict baseline corticosterone and bird condition. The relationships between environmental variables and physiological metrics were assessed at various distances from the capture location. We found that elevated air NO concentration is associated with higher baseline corticosterone levels within 500 m of the capture location. Vegetation did not modulate the relationship between corticosterone and NO. We found sex-dependent relationships between greenness, corticosterone, and body weight. Within 20 m from the capture locations female corticosterone showed negative relationship with leaf area index, while female body weight was positivity related to the overall greenness. These relationships were absent in males. Collectively, the results of this study show that variations in air pollution and vegetation at a local intra-neighborhood scale predict fitness- and stress-related markers in an urban songbird.
众所周知，空气污染会对鸟类健康产生负面影响，并且有研究表明，一些空气污染物会在区域层面导致鸟类种群数量的变化。尽管已有多项研究调查了空气污染对鸟类健康的影响，但在局部尺度上，空气污染暴露与鸟类生理机能之间的关联尚不清楚。此外，尚未评估植被对污染物沉降和扩散的调节作用会在多大程度上影响鸟类健康。在此，我们将主要空气污染物（一氧化氮和超细颗粒物）和植被类型的高分辨率地图与城市常见鸟类美洲知更鸟的密集空间采样相结合，以探究空气污染暴露、植被及其相互作用如何预测基础皮质酮水平和鸟类状况。我们在距捕获地点的不同距离处评估了环境变量与生理指标之间的关系。我们发现，在捕获地点500米范围内，空气中一氧化氮浓度升高与基础皮质酮水平升高有关。植被并未调节皮质酮与一氧化氮之间的关系。我们发现，绿化程度、皮质酮水平和体重之间存在性别依赖性关系。在距捕获地点20米范围内，雌性知更鸟的皮质酮水平与叶面积指数呈负相关，而雌性知更鸟的体重与整体绿化程度呈正相关。雄性知更鸟不存在这些关系。总体而言，本研究结果表明，在局部邻里尺度上，空气污染和植被的变化可预测城市鸣禽的健康和应激相关指标。
