Data from: Effects of short-term multi-pollutant exposure on the oxidative stress status of captive songbirds
Data files
Mar 07, 2025 version files 52.95 KB
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README.md
1.54 KB
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Ziegler_et_al_20250305_submission_all_data.csv
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Abstract
The human influence on Earth's ecosystems is omnipresent. Artificial light at night (ALAN), anthropogenic noise and air pollution, are inherent features of human activities and infrastructure and pose novel environmental challenges to urban-dwelling wildlife. So far, most of the studies investigating the impacts of exposure to urban pollutants on animals have either investigated the effects of urban environments per se, or of single pollutants. However, urban pollutants co-occur, and interactive effects may arise when acting in combination, but we lack a deeper understanding of the effects of combined exposures. Here, we experimentally exposed captive zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata in a full-factorial design to increased levels of ALAN, anthropogenic noise and/or soot and measured oxidative stress status in blood before and after a five-day exposure. We found that the combined exposure to ALAN and noise led to a positive synergistic effect (higher levels than the sum of individual effects) on the antioxidant glutathione (tGSH) and negative synergistic effect (lower levels than the sum of individual effects) on the levels of oxidative damage, measured as concentration of reactive oxygen metabolites (ROM). Soot had no effect on the avian oxidative stress status in the blood immediately after the exposure, neither singly nor in combination with other pollutants. To conclude, our results indicate that a combination of stressors can have complex non-additive interactive effects on oxidative stress status after a short-term exposure. Surprisingly, a combined exposure to ALAN and anthropogenic noise leads to a stronger antioxidant response that seem to prevent oxidative damage than exposure to only one of the stressors. Whether the increased antioxidant defense entails any long-term costs remains to be determined in future studies.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hx3ffbgqs
Description of the data and file structure
Ziegler_et_al_20250305_submission_all_data.csv
NA across the whole dataset stands for missing values
Ring No: ID of the bird
Sex: male or female
Treatment: soot, noise, light, control, soot/light, soot/noise, noise/light and soot/noise/light
Treatment-groups: 1-8
Soot: yes or no
Light: yes or no
Noise: yes or no
Experimental cage: 1-8
Weight_1: body mass prior to experiment (g)
Weight_2: body mass in the middle of the experiment (g)
Weight_3: body mass after the experiment (g)
Tarsus_1: tarsus lenght prior to experiment (mm)
Tarsus_2: tarsus lenght in the middle of the experiment (mm)
Tarsus_3 tarsus lenght after the experiment (mm)
Pre_tGSH_um: concentration of total glutathione(tGSH) before the experiment (micromol/L)
Post_tGSH: concentation of total glutathione(tGSH) after the experiment (micromol/L)
Round: batch of run of tGSH, old or new
Cent_pre_OXY: standarized antioxidant values(OXY) before the experiment
Post_OXY: concentration of OXY after the experiment (mM HCIO neutralised)
Cent_mass_OXY: standardized OXY values after the experiment
Cent_pre_ROMs: stnadardized values for oxidative damage before the experiment
Post_ROMs: concentration of ROMs after experiment (mmol H2O2/L)
Cent_mass_ROMs: standardized values of ROMs after the experiment
