Microorganisms Associated with Feathers of Barn Swallows in Radioactively Contaminated Areas Around Chernobyl |
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Authors: | Gábor Árpád Czirják Anders Pape Møller Timothy A Mousseau Philipp Heeb |
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Institution: | 1. Laboratoire évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), UMR 5174 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse, France 2. Department of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, M?n??tur street 3–5, 400372, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 6. Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Strasse 17, 10315, Berlin, Germany 3. Laboratoire d’Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, UMR 8079 CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, Batiment 362, 91405, Orsay Cedex, France 4. Center for Advanced Study, Drammensveien 78, 0271, Oslo, Norway 5. Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA
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Abstract: | The Chernobyl catastrophe provides a rare opportunity to study the ecological and evolutionary consequences of low-level,
environmental radiation on living organisms. Despite some recent studies about negative effects of environmental radiation
on macroorganisms, there is little knowledge about the effect of radioactive contamination on diversity and abundance of microorganisms.
We examined abundance patterns of total cultivable bacteria and fungi and the abundance of feather-degrading bacterial subset
present on feathers of barn swallows (Hirundo rustica), a colonial migratory passerine, around Chernobyl in relation to levels of ground level environmental radiation. After controlling
for confounding variables, total cultivable bacterial loads were negatively correlated with environmental radioactivity, whereas
abundance of fungi and feather-degrading bacteria was not significantly related to contamination levels. Abundance of both
total and feather-degrading bacteria increased with barn swallow colony size, showing a potential cost of sociality. Males
had lower abundance of feather-degrading bacteria than females. Our results show the detrimental effects of low-level environmental
radiation on total cultivable bacterial assemblage on feathers, while the abundance of other microorganism groups living on
barn swallow feathers, such as feather-degrading bacteria, are shaped by other factors like host sociality or host sex. These
data lead us to conclude that the ecological effects of Chernobyl may be more general than previously assumed and may have
long-term implications for host–microbe interactions and overall ecosystem functioning. |
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