FreeLists / va-richmond-general / [va-richmond-general] Radiation + birds = ?

[IE Ries <feathermom_chirpling@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.livescience.com/animals/070711_birds_radiation.html
   
   
  Nuclear Accidents Kill Brightly Colored Birds Most
    By Melinda Wenner, Special to LiveScience
  posted: 11 July 2007 10:48 am ET

  
   
        The brighter the bird, the less likely it is to survive the devastating 
effects of radiation exposure, according to a new study that examined avian 
populations around the 1986 nuclear disaster site at Chernobyl, Ukraine. 
   
  The same chemicals that some birds use to color their feathers are also used 
to mop up the cancer-causing free radicals that bombard them upon exposure to 
radiation, so when birds hijack these chemicals for their plumage, they have 
less left over for protection, the scientists said. 
   
  Previous research has suggested that animals deficient in chemicals called 
antioxidants are more likely to suffer DNA damage in the presence of radiation 
than other animals, because antioxidants soak up the damaging free radicals 
that radiation creates in the body. 
   
  Anders Møller, an ecologist at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, 
and Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, took 
their research one step further: They wanted to know whether birds that use 
more antioxidants in their everyday lives are, by extension, less likely to 
survive in radioactive environments. 
   
  The researchers counted the numbers and types of birds seen in 257 locations 
around Chernobyl and compared these to radiation levels measured in these 
areas. 
   
  The populations of birds with yellow, orange and red feathers?colors thought 
to be made using a class of antioxidants called carotenoids ?were much smaller 
in the radioactive areas, when compared to other areas, than the populations of 
birds with plumage colors that did not require the use of antioxidants. 
   
  The findings confirm that antioxidants play a crucial role in protecting 
animals against the effects of radiation. Birds that used up their available 
antioxidants for plumage were less likely to survive the aftermath of the 
accident. 
   
  ?We found that bird species differed in their response to radiation from 
Chernobyl,? the researchers said in a prepared statement. ?Although all species 
must cope with the potentially detrimental effects of free radicals, because of 
their use of antioxidants, certain species are predisposed to suffer most from 
these negative effects.? 
   
  Møller and Mousseau, whose study is published this week in the Journal of 
Applied Ecology, also found that the birds that migrate and disperse over long 
distances, as well as those that lay large eggs, suffer more of a population 
decline in radioactive areas compared to other species. 
   
  This is thought to be because strenuous physical activity?such as flying?and 
egg formation use up antioxidants too, they said. 





"Hope is the thing with feathers 
  That perches in the soul 
  And sings the tune without the words 
  And never stops at all." 
  --Emily Dickenson 
   
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