CETACEAN-STRESSORS
The independent and interactive effects of multiple stressors on reproduction and development in cetaceans
| Coordinatore | "Zoological Society of London, Institute of Zoology"
Organization address
address: Regent's Park contact info |
| Nazionalità Coordinatore | United Kingdom [UK] |
| Totale costo | 248˙811 € |
| EC contributo | 248˙811 € |
| Programma | FP7-PEOPLE
Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) |
| Code Call | FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF |
| Funding Scheme | MC-IOF |
| Anno di inizio | 2011 |
| Periodo (anno-mese-giorno) | 2011-05-09 - 2014-10-27 |
Partecipanti
| # | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
"Zoological Society of London, Institute of Zoology"
Organization address
address: Regent's Park contact info |
UK (London) | coordinator | 248˙811.20 |
Mappa
Word cloud
Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.
Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)
'Low reproduction rates (26% pregnancy rates, 3-4 year calving intervals) in two geographically isolated common dolphin Delphinus delphis populations in North East Atlantic (NEA) and New Zealand (NZ) have been found compared to other common dolphin populations where higher pregnancy rates (>40%) exist. The causes of these low rates of reproduction in NEA and NZ are not known but contributory/causal factors may include nutritional stress, immune suppression, disease, pollutants and density dependent population effects. Studies that quantify the complex interacting and potentially confounding effects of multiple stressors on reproduction and development in cetaceans (including synergistic, antagonistic, additive and temporal effects) are urgently required. This project will systematically quantify a range of potential causal factors underpinning the low female fecundity rates in NEA and NZ populations by directly assessing stress and reproductive hormone levels, nutritional condition, reproductive and health status using state of the art (histo)pathological, molecular and other analytical techniques on samples obtained from a large number of postmortem examinations. Interactions between these and other potential causal factors and mating strategies in both sexes derived from behavioural studies of wild common dolphins in Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand will be robustly tested statistically at individual and population levels.'
Introduzione (Teaser)
Recently, two geographically isolated common dolphin populations in North-East Atlantic (NEA) and New Zealand (NZ) were found to have lower reproduction rates than other common dolphins. European researchers are investigating the impact of potential stressors behind this observation.