Sonne Slides 1-100 Flashcards
What distinguishes planetary health from One Health?
- Planetary health encompasses ecosystem degradation, pollution, and broader environmental impacts
- One Health focuses primarily on diseases and their interaction between humans, animals, and the environment.
How does marine ecotoxicology (ME) contribute to planetary health and what are its implications for food security in relation to global fisheries?
- ME examines impacts of pollutants (heavy metals, plastics and POP’s) on marine ecosystems
- Contributes to planetary health by assessing how these pollutants affect biodiversity, ecosystems and human health (E.g. contaminants like mercury and PFAS bioaccumulate in marine food chains –> affect fish populations that serve as critical protein source)
- ME helps create fishing guide lines for sustainable fishing practices –> balance marine ecosystem health with food security demands
Why is aviation a critical factor in planetary health discussions?
- Aviation contributes significantly to pollution and climate change, affecting ecosystems and accelerating tipping points like melting sea ice.
- Sea ice loss –> altering habitats of e.g. seals and polar bears
- Increase in temperature –> affects oceans ability to sequester carbon –> further warming
- Increase in temperature –> mercury bioavailability increase –> amplifying contamination in marine food webs
What are the global climate tipping points?
9 tipping points, 6 in polar regions:
- Amazon rainforest –> frequent droughts
2. Arctic sea ice –> reduction in area
3. Atlantic circulation –> in slowdown since 1950’s
4. Boreal forests –> fires and pests changing
5. Coral reefs –> large scale die offs
6. Greenland ice sheet –> ice loss accelerating
7. Permafrost –> thawing
8. West Antarctic ice sheet –> ice loss accelerating
9. Wilkes basin (East Antarctica) –> ice loss accelerating
What are the potential consequences of a weakened Atlantic circulation?
- A weakened circulation, influenced by the Greenland pump, could disrupt the thermohaline system, potentially leading to climate shifts such as a new ice age in Europe.
- Influences shift in species, diseases and blue food
Why is “blue food” considered important for planetary health?
Blue food provides essential nutrients like iodine and polyunsaturated fatty acids, supports cardiovascular health, and has a lower carbon footprint compared to terrestrial meats.
What is the Blue Food goal by 2050 and how is it disrupted?
2023: 17% global meat from oceans
2050: 35% global meat from oceans
Disruptions:
- Overfishing
- Heat waves
- Pollution
- Diseases
- Acidification
- Deoxygenation
- Loss of species
How do global warming and overfishing increase bioavailability of mercury?
Increase in temperature:
- Enhances activity of bacteria converting inorganic mercury in methylmercury (more toxic form that bioaccumulates)
- Melting ice + permafrost –> release of trapped mercury
- Changes in ocean circulation –> altering mercury distribution
- Food web alterations –> species migrate or change feeding habitats –> longer food chains –> greater biomagnification of mercury
Overfishing:
- disruption food webs –> removing large predatory fish
What are the health implcations of mercury bioavailability increase?
Methylmercury moves up in food chain –> concentrated in top predators (polar bears, seals and humans)
Why is reducing the size of large fish populations detrimental to carbon sequestration?
Large fish help store carbon in the ocean; removing them releases stored carbon, akin to burning wood and releasing CO2.
How do pollutants like PFAS affect human health?
PFAS disrupt fat metabolism, cause high cholesterol, and have persistent environmental and biological impacts, including immune suppression and endocrine disruption.
What role do cyclic compounds like PCBs and DDT play in ecotoxicology?
PCBs and DDT accumulate in organisms, causing issues like thin eggshells in birds and bioaccumulation across trophic levels, with long-term ecological and health impacts
What is biomagnification, and how does it affect Inuit populations?
Biomagnification refers to increasing concentrations of toxins like PCBs and mercury through trophic levels, leading to health risks for Inuits consuming contaminated marine animals.
How do endocrine-disrupting chemicals like PCBs affect polar bears?
They alter hormonal systems, causing reproductive issues and other physiological dysfunctions in polar bears and potentially in humans consuming contaminated meat.
What are the differences between lipophilic and hydrophilic pollutants?
- Lipophilic pollutants like PCBs accumulate in fats
- Hydrophilic ones like PFAS accumulate in protein-rich tissues, influencing their environmental persistence and bioaccumulation.
How does traditional Inuit food like narwhal meat mitigate mercury toxicity?
Narwhal meat contains selenium and vitamin C, which bind mercury into inert complexes, reducing its harmful effects.
What is the significance of the Paris Agreement’s CO2 reduction targets?
Achieving these targets is crucial to mitigating climate change effects, yet current reductions fall short, despite advancements like Denmark’s wind energy reaching 58%.
Why are polar bears considered a model species for studying ecotoxicology?
Polar bears accumulate high levels of pollutants due to their diet, making them indicators of ecosystem health and pollution impacts
How does pollution affect the reproductive health of polar bears?
Pollutants like PCBs contribute to Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome (TDS) in males and can lead to abnormalities in reproductive organs.
What challenges does climate change pose for Arctic wildlife and human populations?
It increases pollutant bioavailability, alters diets and habitats, and drives the northward spread of zoonotic diseases, impacting health and ecosystems.
How do early warning systems in wildlife inform human health risks?
Observing pollutants’ effects on wildlife provides insights into potential human health risks, emphasizing the interconnectedness of One Health
Why is monitoring pollutants like mercury and PFAS in the Arctic critical?
These pollutants persist in ecosystems, biomagnify, and pose significant health risks to both wildlife and indigenous populations dependent on marine food sources
What are the health impacts of switching from traditional to Western diets in Greenland?
The shift leads to increased cardio-metabolic diseases and reduced resilience due to lower consumption of healthy fatty acids and nutrients.
How do small particles in water affect marine organisms?
They enter organisms’ bloodstream, accumulate, and potentially cause long-term health and ecological issues through bioaccumulation and toxicity.
What is the Arctic dietary dilemma?
Removing a traditional food source from a nation’s menu due to contaminants that have been transported over long distances to the
Arctic, affects not just people’s diet but also their healthy marine food,
culture, traditions, livelihoods and circular bio-economy
What is the difference between altricial and precocial species?
- Altricial: Offspring are born underdeveloped and require significant parental care. For example, polar bear cubs are altricial, as they rely heavily on their mothers after birth for nourishment and warmth.
- Precocial: offspring are born well-developed and more independent. For instance, hooded seals give birth to precocial young that are relatively self-sufficient shortly after birth.
What is the significance of studying PFAS/POPs in mammals through an evolutionary lens?
Understanding how pollutants transfer in altricial vs. precocial mammals reveals how maternal investment and developmental patterns influence toxin bioaccumulation across generations.
How does being altricial or precocial impact pollutant exposure in mammals?
Altricial species like polar bears transfer more lipophilic pollutants like PCBs through milk, while precocial species like hooded seals show lower pollutant concentrations due to differences in milk composition and growth rates.
How are PCB’s and OH-PCBs maternally transferred?
PCB’s –> in utero via lipid rich milk (Bioaccumulation)
OH-PCB’s –> transferred via water (and proteins?) but maternal barrier (biodilution)
How is PFAS maternally transferred in hooded seals and in polar bears?
In hooded seals (precocial):
- High in utero transfer of PFAS to offspring (bioaccumulation).
- Low PFAS concentrations in milk
- Low transfer of PFAS from mother to milk
In polar bears (altricial)?
- Low maternal transfer of PFAS to offspring (biodilution)
Why are cohort studies critical for ecotoxicology research?
Cohort studies track individuals and generations over decades, enabling the identification of patterns, such as diet and pollution exposure, and linking these to life history traits and health outcomes.
What role do non-invasive and semi-invasive samples play in ecotoxicology?
Non-invasive samples, like found feathers or eDNA, minimize harm, while semi-invasive methods, like feather cutting, may impact behavior or survival but yield more detailed data.
