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Microorganisms Associated with Feathers of Barn Swallows in Radioactively Contaminated Areas Around Chernobyl

  • Host Microbe Interactions
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Abstract

The Chernobyl catastrophe provides a rare opportunity to study the ecological and evolutionary consequences of low-level, environmental radiation on living organisms. Despite some recent studies about negative effects of environmental radiation on macroorganisms, there is little knowledge about the effect of radioactive contamination on diversity and abundance of microorganisms. We examined abundance patterns of total cultivable bacteria and fungi and the abundance of feather-degrading bacterial subset present on feathers of barn swallows (Hirundo rustica), a colonial migratory passerine, around Chernobyl in relation to levels of ground level environmental radiation. After controlling for confounding variables, total cultivable bacterial loads were negatively correlated with environmental radioactivity, whereas abundance of fungi and feather-degrading bacteria was not significantly related to contamination levels. Abundance of both total and feather-degrading bacteria increased with barn swallow colony size, showing a potential cost of sociality. Males had lower abundance of feather-degrading bacteria than females. Our results show the detrimental effects of low-level environmental radiation on total cultivable bacterial assemblage on feathers, while the abundance of other microorganism groups living on barn swallow feathers, such as feather-degrading bacteria, are shaped by other factors like host sociality or host sex. These data lead us to conclude that the ecological effects of Chernobyl may be more general than previously assumed and may have long-term implications for host–microbe interactions and overall ecosystem functioning.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Emese and Sára Czirják, Mathieu Giraudeau, Alex R. Gunderson, Pascal Mirleau and Matthew D. Shawkey for their help. This project was supported in part by a French research grant from ANR to PH and Marcel Lambrechts (ANR-05, NT05-3_42075). GÁC was supported by a Ph.D. scholarship of the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research and by an Eiffel grant from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. APM and TAM gratefully acknowledge support from the CNRS (France), the US National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society and the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust. Three anonymous reviewers kindly provided constructive criticism on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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  1. Gábor Árpád Czirják

    Present address: Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Strasse 17, 10315, Berlin, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), UMR 5174 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse, France

    Gábor Árpád Czirják & Philipp Heeb

  2. Department of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Mănăştur street 3–5, 400372, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Gábor Árpád Czirják

  3. Laboratoire d’Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, UMR 8079 CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, Bâtiment 362, 91405, Orsay Cedex, France

    Anders Pape Møller

  4. Center for Advanced Study, Drammensveien 78, 0271, Oslo, Norway

    Anders Pape Møller

  5. Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Timothy A. Mousseau

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  1. Gábor Árpád Czirják
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Correspondence to Gábor Árpád Czirják.

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Czirják, G.Á., Møller, A.P., Mousseau, T.A. et al. Microorganisms Associated with Feathers of Barn Swallows in Radioactively Contaminated Areas Around Chernobyl. Microb Ecol 60, 373–380 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-010-9716-4

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