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Pollution and Wildlife Health

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Wildlife Population Health

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Abstract

Pollution is a pervasive and growing threat to wildlife health. This chapter discusses two broad groups of pollution, those whose abatement could have immediate beneficial effects including light, air, and noise pollution, and those that will take relatively longer to address due to their environmental persistence or their continuing discharge. Whilst we are very good at detecting the presence of pollutants in tissues or the environment, making a convincing link between the presence of these compounds and mortality events in the field or population effects will remain a challenge for the foreseeable future. Creative new approaches are also being considered to mitigate the effects of pollution on wildlife and ecosystems. Depending on the source of pollution, the beneficial outcomes of mitigation measures, if properly implemented, could have immediate effects. Given the plethora of potential adverse pollution effects, frameworks to prioritize which threats are most likely to cause adverse effects and develop means to address or manage them are an imperative. In the interim, focusing on preserving existing habitats and reducing our footprint by adjusting human activities to minimize the release of pollutants into the environment will go a long way toward promoting healthy wildlife and ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

Barnett Rattner and Jennifer Lynch provided constructive comments in earlier versions of this MS. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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  1. U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center Honolulu Field Station, Hawaii, USA

    Thierry M. Work

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  1. School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Nanoose Bay, BC, Canada

    Craig Stephen

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Work, T.M. (2022). Pollution and Wildlife Health. In: Stephen, C. (eds) Wildlife Population Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90510-1_16

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