RADIACION

The exposure to high levels of nuclear radiation has profound indirect effects through environmental alteration, but also direct effects on organism’s life cycles causing severe health problems or even death. Different studies about the effects of nuclear radiation of one of the worst nuclear accidents that happened in the planet, the Chernobyl (Ukraine) accident in 1986, showed increase mutation rates in organisms living there and higher taxes of malformations. In the present project, I will study how the nuclear radiation can affect species interactions at the long term, studying the adaptations in the defences against microorganisms in a population of barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) breeding in contaminated areas of Chernobyl and non-contaminated zones from Ucrania. We will study (1) the bacterial pressures exerted on swallows populations subjected to different radiation levels, for which we will characterize bacterial communities which birds are in contact with in the nests and estimate the keratinolytic capacity of those bacteria (i.e., the ability to degrade the feathers), (2) variation in investment in defensive mechanisms against bacteria of populations under different radiation levels, i.e., the fighting of birds against bacteria, by measuring different components of the immune system (antimicrobial activity of the blood plasma and of the uropygial gland secretion), (3) the susceptibility to bacterial degradation of feathers and (4) the flight performance through assessing the feathers’ degradation status.