spitzbergen-3
fb  Spitsbergen Panoramas - 360-degree panoramas  de  en  nb  Spitsbergen Shop  
Marker
Home → * News and Stories → Envi­ron­men­tal toxins lead to thin­ner eggs­hells for Ivory gulls

Envi­ron­men­tal toxins lead to thin­ner eggs­hells for Ivory gulls

Posted on 7. January 2013 by Rolf Stange

Envi­ron­men­tal toxins lead to thin­ner eggs­hells for Ivory gulls. This is one key result of a recent stu­dy made by sci­en­tists from the Nor­we­gi­an Polar Insti­tu­te (NPI), the Rus­si­an Ant­arc­tic Rese­arch Insti­tu­te (AARI) in St. Peters­burg and others. Sam­ples were taken in Sval­bard and arc­tic Rus­sia in 2007. Com­pa­red with data from the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry, eggs­hells from Spits­ber­gen and the Rus­si­an arc­tic are up to 17 % thin­ner.

Ivory gulls are on top of the food chain, and long-lived envi­ron­men­tal toxins such as PCBs and DDT are accu­mu­la­ting towards the top of the food chain. The thin­ned eggs­hells are shown to have high con­cen­tra­ti­ons espe­cial­ly of DDT.

DDT was gra­du­al­ly ban­ned in many coun­tries from the ear­ly 1970s onwards and is now used legal­ly only in rela­tively small quan­ti­ties to fight dise­a­ses such as mala­ria. After an ban on DDT in Nor­way, eggs­hell thic­kness of sea­b­irds and birds of prey reco­ve­r­ed again back to natu­ral values.

Ivory gull in Spits­ber­gen.

Ivory gull

Source: Nor­we­gi­an Polar Insti­tu­te

← Back

BOOKS, CALENDAR, POSTCARDS AND MORE

This and other publishing products of the Spitsbergen publishing house in the Spitsbergen-Shop.

  • Poster “Svalbardhytter”

    The poster "Svalbardhytter" (70 x 100 cm) visualizes the diversity of Spitsbergen's huts in a range of arctic landscapes.
    Order now

  • Book “Svalbardhytter”

    The companion book for the Svalbardhytter poster. The poster visualises the diversity of Spitsbergen‘s huts and their stories in a range of Arctic landscapes. The book tells the stories of the huts in three languages.
    Order now

  • Spitsbergen – Svalbard. The complete guidebook

    Comprehensive guidebook about Spitsbergen. Background (wildlife, plants, geology, history etc.), practical information including travelling seasons, how to travel, description of settlements, routes and regions.
    Order now

  • Norwegens arktischer Norden (2): Aerial Arctic

    Lofoten, Jan Mayen and Spitsbergen from the air - Photobook: Norway's arctic islands. The text in this book is German, but there is very little text, so I am sure that you will enjoy it regardless which languages you read (or not).
    Order now

  • Rocks and Ice. Landscapes of the North

    A geographical traveling accompaniment to Spitsbergen and East Greenland (68-74°N). This is the English edition of the German book "Steine und Eis".
    Order now

  • East Greenland in Winter

    Join an exciting journey with dog, skis and tent through the wintery wastes of East Greenland! We were five guys and a dog when we started in Ittoqqortoormiit, the northernmost one of two settlements on Greenland’s east coast.
    Order now

  • Postcard set Spitsbergen (Svalbard)

    12 Spitsbergen postcards in a beautifully designed tray. Individually numbered limited edition!
    Order now

  • Limited edition postcard set Antarctica

    12 postcards which come in a beautifully designed tray. Beautiful images from South Georgia across Antarctica from the Antarctic Peninsula to the Ross Sea and up to Macquarie Island and Campbell Island.
    Order now

  • Double calendar 2021: Spitsbergen and Antarctica

    Spitsbergen – Antarctic double calendar. The back side of the sheets, which used to be blank until 2019, are now fully used so you actually get two calendars for the price of one – twelve stunning Spitsbergen images on one side and twelve equally stunning Antarctic images on the other side!
    Order now
last modification: 2014-07-01 · copyright: Rolf Stange
css.php