Assessing the impact of contaminants on seabirds
My research focuses on the causes and consequences of the transfer and accumulation of chemical contaminants (trace metals, chlorinated, brominated and fluorinated organic compounds) in seabirds at the individual, population and species levels. I am particularly interested in the intrinsic (species, age, sex) and extrinsic (diet, habitat, migration, season) determinants that may influence the transfer and accumulation of contaminants and their kinetics in the organism. I also aim to quantify the effects of contaminants on physiology, reproduction and survival, alone or in combination with other stressors such as parasitism.
In order to study individuals under natural conditions, I use non-destructive techniques: blood and feather collection to measure contaminants, trophic tracers (stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen) and physiological biomarkers (oxidative stress, telomere length); non-lethal endoscopy, to quantify gastrointestinal parasitic worm burdens; and biologging, to study activity and movements.
Post-Doctoral Fellow ECOMM
University of La Rochelle
alice.carravieri(at)univ-lr.fr
