Geir Wing Gabrielsen

Norwegian Polar Institute · Ecotoxicology Section

Several studies have reported an increasing occurrence of poly-and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs) in Arctic wildlife tissues, raising concerns due to their resistance to degradation. While some research has explored PFAS's physiological effects on birds, their impact on reproductive functions, particularly sperm quality, remains underexplo...

In seasonal environments, the fitness of animals depends upon the successful integration of life‐history stages throughout their annual cycle. Failing to do so can lead to negative carry‐over effects where individuals are transitioning into the next season in different states, consequently affecting their future performance. However, carry‐over eff...

Mercury (Hg) is a heterogeneously distributed toxicant affecting wildlife and human health. Yet, the spatial distribution of Hg remains poorly documented, especially in food webs, even though this knowledge is essential to assess large-scale risk of toxicity for the biota and human populations. Here, we used seabirds to assess, at an unprecedented...

Plastic pollution threatens many organisms around the world. In particular, the northern fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis, is known to ingest high quantities of plastics. Since data are sparse in the Eurasian Arctic, we investigated plastic burdens in the stomachs of fulmar fledglings from Kongsfjorden, Svalbard. Fifteen birds were collected and only par...

This updated chapter aims to advance our understanding of plastic pollution in Svalbard, and potentially prompt effective measures to protect the fragile ecosystems of Svalbard and the Arctic as a whole

This study investigated the contamination levels of five typical organotin compounds in Arctic and Antarctic marine sediments. Organotin total concentrations ranged from not detected (ND) to 37.9 ng Sn/g dw and from ND to 34.0 ng Sn/g dw in surface sediments of Svalbard and Fildes Peninsula, respectively. Dibutyltin accounted for 11.3 %–100 % of bu...

An increasing number of organisms from the polar regions are reported contaminated by plastic. Rarely a non-killing sampling method is used. In this study we wanted to assess plastic levels using stomach flushing and evaluate the method suitability for further research and monitoring. The stomach of 22 fulmars from Bjørnøya, Svalbard, were flushed...

In biparental Charadriinae plovers, male and female incubation duties often resemble daily routines, with males typically incubating at night and females incubating during the day. By analysing incubation behaviour in three Arctic populations of Common Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula, we show that these diel routines are lost in the 24-h sunligh...

The Arctic experiences a rapid retreat of sea-ice, particularly in spring and summer, which may dramatically affect pagophilic species. In recent years, the decline of many Arctic seabird populations has raised concerns about the potential role of sea-ice habitats on their demography. Spring sea-ice drives the dynamics of phytoplankton blooms, the...

Procellariiform seabirds like northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) are prone to ingest and accumulate floating plastic pieces. In the North Sea region, there is a long tradition to use beached fulmars as biomonitors for marine plastic pollution. Monitoring data revealed consistently lower plastic burdens in adult fulmars compared to younger age cl...

Arctic zooplankton develop large energy reserves, as an adaptation to strong seasonality, making them valuable prey items. We quantified the energy content (kJ g⁻¹ dry weight) of abundant krill (arcto-boreal, Thysanoessa inermis and boreal, Meganyctiphanes norvegica) and amphipods (Arctic, Themisto libellula and sub-Arctic-boreal, Themisto abyssoru...

The Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) is a pelagic seabird species often used as an indicator of plastic pollution in the North Sea region. The contamination levels in that species start to be well known in that region but data are lacking from higher latitudes. Especially, early life stages were poorly studied in all regions of the world and ad...

The northern fulmar Fulmarus glacialis ingests larger number of (micro)plastics than other seabirds due to its feeding habits and gut morphology. These characteristics make them a suitable species for the monitoring of plastic pollution. Since 2002, the northern fulmar is bioindicators of marine plastics in the North Sea region and data are needed...

Plastic pollution is a global problem and threatens many organisms, including in the Arctic. Particularly, the northern fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis, is known to ingest high quantities of plastics compared to other seabirds. It is a bioindicator in the North Sea Region and is thought to have the potential to become one in the Arctic. Unfortunately, d...

Maternal effects are thought to be essential tools for females to modulate offspring development. The selective deposition of avian maternal hormones could therefore allow females to strategically adjust the phenotype of their offspring to the environmental situation encountered. However, at the time of egg formation, several contaminants are also...

The northern fulmar Fulmarus glacialis ingests a larger number of (micro)plastics than many other seabirds due to its feeding habits and gut morphology. Since 2002, they are bioindicators of marine plastics in the North Sea region, and data are needed to extend the programme to other parts of their distribution areas, such as the Arctic. In this st...

Monitoring plastic ingestion by marine wildlife is important for both characterizing the extent of plastic pollution in the environment and understanding its effect on species and ecosystems. Current methods to detect plastic in the digestive system of animals are slow and invasive, such that the number of animals that can be screened is limited. I...

The Micro-FTIR Nicolet TM iN TM 10 (Thermo Fisher Scientific) was used to identify anthropogenic particles. 22 fields of each filter (one replicate sample) were analyzed using a photomontage of 64 co-scans (spatial resolution 100 µm, aperture 100 µm x 100 µm) in the spectral range of 4000-1200 cm-1. Particles and fibers were selected by utilizing W...

Note that this video is part of the Supplementary Material: https://figshare.com/articles/media/RaudvikaSvalbard2011_Varpe_mp4/21107965

Seabirds in cold biomes sometimes aggregate near glacier fronts and at sea-ice edges to forage. In this note, we report on large aggregations of black guillemots (Cepphus grylle) at the edge of sea ice in front of the tidewater glacier Kongsbreen (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard). During several days in the second half of June 2011, we observed 49–155 indiv...

With the current possible presence of thousands of PFAS compounds in industrial emissions, there is an increasing need to assess the impacts of PFAS regulation of conventional PFAS on one hand and the exposure to emerging and yet unknown PFAS on the other. Today’s analytical methodologies using targeted approaches are not sufficient to determine th...

To understand the exposure and potential sources of emerging brominated flame retardants (EBFR) and organophosphate esters (OPEs) in marine wildlife from the Norwegian Arctic, we investigated concentrations of EBFRs in 157 tissue samples from nine species of marine vertebrates and OPEs in 34 samples from three whale species. The samples, collected...

Anthropogenic activities are introducing multiple chemical contaminants into ecosystems that act as stressors for wildlife. Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and mercury (Hg) are two relevant contaminants that may cause detrimental effects on the fitness of many aquatic organisms. However, there is a lack of information on their impact on the expres...

Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) are a pelagic seabird species distributed at northern and polar latitudes. They are often used as an indicator of plastic pollution in the North Sea region, but data are lacking from higher latitudes, especially when it comes to chicks. Here, we investigated amounts of ingested plastic and their characteristics...

Arctic ecosystems are increasingly under pressure, not only from climatic stressors, resource extraction, and long-range transport of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), but also from an increased use and subsequent release of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCP). In Svalbard, an archipelago under Norwegian sovereignty in the High No...

Microplastic contamination is an emerging issue in the marine environment including the Arctic. However, the occurrence of microplastics in the Arctic fjords remains less understood. Sample collections were conducted by trawling horizontally in surface water (0–0.4-m depth) and trawling vertically in the water column (0–200-m depth) to investigate...

Since the last Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) effort to review biological effects of mercury (Hg) on Arctic biota in 2011 and 2018, there has been a considerable number of new Arctic bird studies. This review article provides contemporary Hg exposure and potential health risk for 36 Arctic seabird and shorebird species, represent...

Plastic pollution has been reported to affect Arctic mammals and birds. There are strengths and limitations to monitoring litter and microplastics using Arctic mammals and birds. One strength is the direct use of these data to understand the potential impacts on Arctic biodiversity as well as effects on human health, if selected species are consume...

For more than five decades, research has been conducted at Ny-Ålesund, in Svalbard, Norway, to understand the structure and functioning of High-Arctic ecosystems and the profound impacts on them of environmental change. Terrestrial, freshwater, glacial and marine ecosystems are accessible year-round from Ny-Ålesund, providing unique opportunities f...

Plastic pollution is now pervasive in the Arctic, even in areas with no apparent human activity, such as the deep seafloor. In this Review, we describe the sources and impacts of Arctic plastic pollution, including plastic debris and microplastics, which have infiltrated terrestrial and aquatic systems, the cryosphere and the atmosphere. Although s...

Arctic wildlife is facing multiple stressors, including increasing plastic pollution. Seabirds are intrinsic to marine ecosystems, but most seabird populations are declining. We lack knowledge on plastic ingestion in many arctic seabird species, and there is an urgent need for more information to enable risk assessment and monitoring. Our study aim...

Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are found in Antarctic wildlife, with high levels in the avian top predator south polar skua (Catharacta maccormicki). As increasing PFAS concentrations were found in the south polar skua during the breeding season in Antarctica, we hypothesised that available prey during the breeding period contributes si...

To assess the impact of human activities and ot her factors on the levels of highly toxic trace elements in the environment, the contents of eight highly toxic trace elements (arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn)) in feathers of 15 bird species from the Prydz Bay region in the An...

Seabirds are important vectors for nutrient transfer across ecosystem boundaries. In this seasonal study, we evaluate the impact of an Arctic colony (Alkhornet, Svalbard) of Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) and Brünnich’s Guillemots (Uria lomvia) on stream nutrient concentrations and fluxes, as well as utilization by coastal biota. Water...

Given the increasing attention on the occurrence of microplastics in the environment, and the potential environmental threats they pose, there is a need for researchers to move quickly from basic understanding to applied science that supports decision makers in finding feasible mitigation measures and solutions. At the same time, they must provide...

The northern fulmar Fulmarus glacialis (hereafter fulmar) is one of the few species studied in the frame of plastic pollution in Svalbard. The fulmar is an OSPAR species used for biomonitoring of plastic pollution in the North Sea and is well studied in the Arctic. However, data are lacking in some regions -including Svalbard- and for some life sta...

Did you know that plastic waste is so widespread across our planet that it can be found even in the far north, in the Arctic Ocean? Plastic ends up in the environment in many different ways, and researchers are trying to figure out how this pollution affects the animals and plants living in environments that contain plastic waste. Here comes a mess...

The purpose of the guidelines is to review existing knowledge and provide guidance for designing an Arctic monitoring program that will track litter and MP. The topics of litter, plastic pollution, and MP are addressed in many fora, including several of the Arctic Council working groups: Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP; https://www...

Although it has been suggested that plastic may act as a vector for pollutants into the tissue of seabirds, the bioaccumulation of harmful contaminants, such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), released from ingested plastics is poorly understood. Plastic ingestion by the procellariiform species northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) is well d...

The research on plastic pollution is increasing worldwide but little is known about the contamination levels in the Arctic by microplastics and other anthropogenic particles (APs) such as dyed fibres. In this study, two different sampling designs were developed to collect 68 sediment subsamples in five locations in a remote Arctic fjord, Kongsfjord...

Concern on relatively high levels and the potential bioaccumulation of decabromodiphenylether (BDE209) has led to a European 8-year monitoring program on trends in BDE209 concentrations in birds, sewage sludge and sediments from seven countries. BDE209 was analysed in four environmental matrices: sparrowhawk eggs (UK), glaucous gull eggs (Bear Isla...

The findings of microplastics in sea ice, snow, water, sediment, and biota samples in Svalbard show that the archipelago is not isolated from pollution generated in other parts of the world and plastic pollution in the region must be monitored.

Per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are associated with several disrupted physiological and endocrine parameters. Regarding endocrine mechanisms, laboratory studies suggest that PFASs could disrupt the thyroid hormone (TH) system and alter circulating TH concentrations. THs play a ubiquitous role—controlling thermoregulation, metabolism, an...

Marine litter pollution affects oceans globally and has today also made its way to the pristine arctic environment adding to the microlitter from local pollution sources. Marine litter pollution is recognized as a serious threat to the marine environment at all levels, from the UN to regional (EU, OSPAR, HELCOM) and national authorities. The risk p...

Seabird feathers are effective indicators of heavy metal contamination. To propose a biological detection method suitable for the long-term monitoring of heavy metals in the Antarctic environment, eight heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in Adélie penguin feathers from different body parts, years, and molting grounds in the Antarctic...

Organophosphorus flame retardants (PFRs) are contaminants of emerging concern which have been detected globally. However, little information on PFRs in the Arctic freshwater environment is currently available. In this study, both hydrophilic and hydrophobic PFRs in the water and sediment of four areas (town, surroundings, coastal marine water, and...

Environmental factors that can influence telomeres are diverse, but the association between telomeres and exposure to environmental contaminants is far to be elucidated. To date, prior studies focused on legacy persistent chlorinated pollutants POPs, while the effects of poly- and per-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have poorly been documented. Here,...

Human activities leave traces of marine litter around the globe. The Arctic is, despite its remoteness, emerging as an area of no exception to this environmental issue. Arctic sea ice has previously been found to constitute a temporal sink of microplastics, but the potential release and subsequent fate of microplastics in the marine environment are...

Background: Wild aquatic birds serve as the natural reservoir for avian influenza virus (AIV), a disease with significant implications for avian and mammalian health. Climate change is predicted to impact the dynamics of AIV, particularly in areas such as the Arctic, but the baseline data needed to detect these shifts is often unavailable. In this...

Thyroid hormone disrupting chemicals (THDCs) are of major concern in ecotoxicology. With the increased number of emerging chemicals on the market there is a need to screen for potential THDCs in a cost-efficient way, and in silico modeling is an alternative to address this issue. In this study homology modeling and docking was used to screen a list...

Incubating eggs represents a trade-off for parent birds between spending enough time fasting to take care of the clutch and to get enough nutrients for self-maintenance. It is believed that the pituitary hormone prolactin plays an important role in such allocation processes. Incubation does not solely imply the active warming of the eggs but also t...

How real-world marine food webs absorb change, recover and adapt (that is, ecological resilience) to climate change remains problematic. Here we apply a novel approach to show how the complex changes in resilience of food webs can be understood with a small core set of self-organizing configurations that represent different simultaneously nested an...

Plastic pollution, especially microplastics (MP) pollution, is a hot topic in both mainstream media and scientific literature. Although rivers are potentially the major transport pathway of this pollution to the sea, plastic contamination in freshwater bodies is comparatively understudied. Microplastic pollution in freshwater fish is of growing int...

Extratropical cyclones (ETCs) play a primary role in determining the variation in local weather and marine conditions in the mid-latitudes. ETCs have a broad range of intensities, from benign to extreme, and their paths, frequency, and intensity may change with global warming. However, how ETCs, and cyclones in general, currently affect marine wild...

The importance of daily fluctuations in avian basal metabolic rate (BMR) was introduced in the classic paper by Aschoff and Pohl (1970) characterizing circadian differences. Since that time, there has been a shift in the BMR literature to accept only values measured in the ρ- (resting) phase of the day as true BMR. We argue that α- (active) and ρ-p...

Since the last Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) effort to review biological effects of the exposure to organohalogen compounds (OHCs) in Arctic biota, there has been a considerable number of new Arctic effect studies. Here, we provide an update on the state of the knowledge of OHC, and also include mercury, exposure and/or associat...