(1)Senior research fellow Shilpi Saikia in her article for the 6th volume of Applied Ecology and Environmental Research titled “Use of microbes from seabird faeces to evaluate heavy metal contamination in Antarctic region” (2008) asserts that different tolerances to heavy metals in gut bacteria shows an adaptive response for these communities which can also create a tolerance to antibiotics. (2)Shaikia provides evidence that top-predator skua seabirds have gut flora that interact with the highest levels of heavy metals in the Antarctic food chain via biomagnification, that heavy-metal tolerance has been proven to be linked to antibiotic resistance, and that tolerance to both is a plasmid-borne adaptive response through agar and tube dilution methods of heavy metals and disc diffusion of common antibiotics. (3)The purpose of this article is to classify the tolerance to antibiotics and heavy metals of gut bacteria in skuas in order to have more information when monitoring the populations of this region and in order to learn more about antibiotic tolerance. (4)The intended audience is readers of the Applied Ecology and Environmental Ecology Journal, which are people with a background knowledge of biological and environmental sciences – which may include experts, peers of Shaikia, as well as people worldwide from different fields.
