ArticleScientific reports2019
Exposure to Pb impairs breeding success and is associated with longer lifespan in urban European blackbirds.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- An integrated social-ecological-evolutionary-phenotypic (SEEP) approach to understanding animal responses to urbanization.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Understanding Pb contamination in wild mammals and birds and examining the potential contamination related to ammunition in Japan.The Journal of veterinary medical science · 2025Article
- Factors affecting fledglings survival in urban population of European blackbirds in Szczecin (NW Poland).Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The Effects of Chronic Lead Exposure on Testicular Development of Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica): Histopathological Damages, Oxidative Stress, Steroidogenesis Disturbance, and Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Testis Axis Disruption.Biological trace element research · 2023Article
- Increased lead and glucocorticoid concentrations reduce reproductive success in house sparrows along an urban gradient.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2022Article
- Assessment of the Toxic Effects of Heavy Metals on Waterbirds and Their Prey Species in Freshwater Habitats.Toxics · 2022Article
- Replicated, urban-driven exposure to metallic trace elements in two passerines.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Monitoring of heavy metal pollution in urban and rural environments across Pakistan using House crows (Corvus splendens) as bioindicator.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2021Article
- Hormesis in Health and Chronic Diseases.Trends in endocrinology and metabolism: TEM · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although several factors have been highlighted to explain the influence of urbanization on bird fitness and survival, the role of persistent toxicants such as lead (Pb), which is typically present in urban areas worldwide, has seldom been studied despite the ecological importance of such a widespread stressor. Studying free-living European blackbirds (Turdus merula) in city parks, we tested the hypothesis that low-dose chronic exposure to Pb could shape the life-history traits of urban birds. The feather concentrations of Pb and cadmium were typical of urban areas and low-to-moderate contamination of sites. Although the lifetime breeding success of females decreased with increasing exposure to Pb, the lifespan and survival probabilities of blackbirds increased with Pb contamination regardless of gender. Breeding effort-dependent patterns in the relationship between lifespan and Pb levels were highlighted. No significant relationships were detected between cadmium and life-history traits. The results suggest a possible trade-off between self-maintenance and reproduction, with the most affected birds redirecting allocations towards their own survival, which is consistent with the "stress hormone hypothesis". These findings suggest that Pb pollution in urban environments may shape avian ecological features and be one of the drivers of wildlife responses to urbanization and that some urban areas may function as ecological traps driven by pollutants.
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