Incorporation of Deepwater Horizon oil in a terrestrial bird

Carbon isotopic evidence revealed Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil entering coastal planktonic and lower terrestrial food webs. The integration of spilled oil into higher terrestrial trophic levels, however, remains uncertain. Wemeasured radiocarbon (C-14) and stable carbon (C-13) in seaside sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus) feathers and crop contents. Lower C-14 and C-13 values in feathers and crop contents of birds from contaminated areas indicated incorporation of carbon from oil. Our results, although based on a small sample of birds, thus reveal a food-web link between oil exposure and a terrestrial ecosystem. They also suggest that the reduction in reproductive success previously documented in the same population might be due to the (direct) toxic effect of oil exposure, rather than to (indirect) ecological effects. Werecommend future studies test our results by using larger samples of birds from a wider area in order to assess the extent and implications ofDWHoil incorporation into the terrestrial food web

Abundance (ecology · Biology · Deepwater horizon · Ecosystem · Environmental protection · Feather · Food chain · Food web · Oil spill · Population · Terrestrial ecosystem · Trophic level · Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics · Chemistry · Environmental Science · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Mercury impact and mitigation studies · Ecology · Environmental Chemistry

• Oil carbon entered the coastal planktonic food web during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

  Open Access•William M Graham, Robert H Condon et al.•Environmental Research Letters•2010

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• Radiocarbon evidence that carbon from the Deepwater Horizon spill entered the planktonic food web of the Gulf of Mexico

  Open Access•Jeffrey P Chanton, Jennifer Cherrier et al.•Environmental Research Letters•2012

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• Discussion Reporting of 14 C Data

  Open Access•Minze Stuiver, Henry A Polach•Radiocarbon•1977

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