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Hopkins KE, McKinney MA, Letcher RJ, Fernie KJ. The influence of environmental and ecological factors on the accumulation and distribution of short- and long-chain perfluoroalkyl acids in a mid-trophic avian insectivore. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2023; 321:121133. [PMID: 36690292 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2022] [Revised: 01/19/2023] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) include perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorodecane sulfonic acid (PFDS), as well as increasingly used alternative short-chain perfluorosulfonic acids (PFSAs) and short- and long-chain (≥C9) perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs). In the present study, tissues of tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) from two sites in southern Ontario, Canada, were analyzed for 17 individual PFAAs and showed egg and nestling tissue (liver, carcass) profiles dominated by PFOS (57-66%). The remaining PFAAs contributed ≤7% each, although collectively the long-chain PFCAs comprised 21-29% of the PFAAs. The short-chain PFSAs and PFCAs were among the lowest concentrations, suggesting that despite increased production and use of these alternative PFAAs, they are not accumulated to the same extent as the long-chain PFSAs and PFCAs. PFOS, PFDS, and some long-chain PFCAs were significantly higher in eggs than in livers and carcasses, whereas PFOA and the two short-chain PFCAs were significantly higher in nestling tissues than in eggs. For the two short-chain PFSAs, concentrations were similar among tissues. Tree swallow tissues at the site near a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) outfall showed higher concentrations of PFOS, PFDS, PFHxS, and some long-chain PFCAs than tree swallows sampled at the nearby reference site; however, the influence of the WWTP was more equivocal for PFOA, other long-chain PFCAs, and short-chain PFSAs and PFCAs. Carbon stable isotopes (δ13C) and fatty acid signatures indicated that the diets of the WWTP swallows were more terrestrial than the reference swallows. Nonetheless, models considering environmental and ecological variables indicated that site was often the primary driver of PFAA variation among the swallows, with less or no influence of dietary patterns, or sex or body condition, revealing that of WWTP effluent can be an important environmental source of the major PFAAs in tree swallows.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kailee E Hopkins
- Ecotoxicology and Wildlife Health Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada; Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, 21111 Lakeshore Road, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada
| | - Melissa A McKinney
- Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, 21111 Lakeshore Road, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada
| | - Robert J Letcher
- Ecotoxicology and Wildlife Health Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Dr, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0H3, Canada
| | - Kim J Fernie
- Ecotoxicology and Wildlife Health Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada; Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, 21111 Lakeshore Road, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada.
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Pedersen AF, Dietz R, Sonne C, Liu L, Rosing-Asvid A, McKinney MA. Development and validation of a modified QuEChERS method for extracting polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides from marine mammal blubber. CHEMOSPHERE 2023; 312:137245. [PMID: 36395894 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Revised: 11/11/2022] [Accepted: 11/12/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The monitoring of legacy persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in blubber of key sentinel marine mammal species has been conducted using established techniques for decades. Although these methods for polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and organochlorine (OC) pesticide determination provide accurate and reproducible results, they possess some drawbacks in terms of cost, time, and a need for large volumes of toxic solvents. QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) extractions may help address these issues, but have not been applied to marine mammal blubber/adipose. As such, our aim was to develop, validate, and apply a QuEChERS method for the extraction of PCB and OC contaminants in marine mammal blubber. First, we tested multiple solid-phase extraction and clean-up steps to find the approach that provided the cleanest extracts along with consistent and acceptable analyte recovery, accuracy, and precision. QuEChERS extractions followed by two enhanced matrix removal-lipid (EMR-lipid), one primary-secondary amine (PSA), and one silica gel clean-up showed the highest matrix removal and acceptable recoveries of spiked internal (62-97%) and external standards (61-94%). Solvent usage was reduced by ∼393% and extraction time was reduced by ∼25% (from 16 to 12 h). Next, the method was validated using standard reference material (SRM) NIST 1945. Recovery experiments on SRM (n = 5) showed acceptable recovery for 76% and 77% of PCBs and OC pesticides, respectively, and high precision for 73% and 69% of PCBs and OCs, respectively. Finally, the method was used on a set of southeast Greenland killer whales (n = 13), with previously published PCB and OC data. Bland-Altman plots indicated good agreement between QuEChERS and current-use methods for ΣPCBs and some OCs with no significant constant or proportional bias. These results demonstrate that this QuEChERS extraction method represents an effective, lower cost alternative to current-use extractions for PCBs and OCs in blubber, and likely other high-lipid samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam F Pedersen
- Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada.
| | - Rune Dietz
- Department of Ecoscience, Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, Roskilde, DK-4000, Denmark
| | - Christian Sonne
- Department of Ecoscience, Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, Roskilde, DK-4000, Denmark
| | - Lan Liu
- Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada
| | | | - Melissa A McKinney
- Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9, Canada.
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Wright EJ, McCarron P. A mussel tissue certified reference material for multiple phycotoxins. Part 5: profiling by liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry. Anal Bioanal Chem 2021; 413:2055-2069. [PMID: 33661347 DOI: 10.1007/s00216-020-03133-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Revised: 12/14/2020] [Accepted: 12/16/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
A freeze-dried mussel tissue-certified reference material (CRM-FDMT1) was prepared containing the marine algal toxin classes azaspiracids, okadaic acid and dinophysistoxins, yessotoxins, pectenotoxins, cyclic imines, and domoic acid. Thus far, only a limited number of analogues in CRM-FDMT1 have been assigned certified values; however, the complete toxin profile is significantly more complex. Liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry was used to profile CRM-FDMT1. Full-scan data was searched against a list of previously reported toxin analogues, and characteristic product ions extracted from all-ion-fragmentation data were used to guide the extent of toxin profiling. A series of targeted and untargeted acquisition MS/MS experiments were then used to collect spectra for analogues. A number of toxins previously reported in the literature but not readily available as standards were tentatively identified including dihydroxy and carboxyhydroxyyessotoxin, azaspiracids-33 and -39, sulfonated pectenotoxin analogues, spirolide variants, and fatty acid acyl esters of okadaic acid and pectenotoxins. Previously unreported toxins were also observed including compounds from the pectenotoxin, azaspiracid, yessotoxin, and spirolide classes. More than one hundred toxin analogues present in CRM-FDMT1 are summarized along with a demonstration of the major acyl ester conjugates of several toxins. Retention index values were assigned for all confirmed or tentatively identified analogues to help with qualitative identification of the broad range of lipophilic toxins present in the material.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elliott J Wright
- Biotoxin Metrology, National Research Council Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3Z1, Canada
| | - Pearse McCarron
- Biotoxin Metrology, National Research Council Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3Z1, Canada.
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Trbović D, Polak T, Demšar L, Parunović N, Dimitrijević M, Nikolić D, Đorđević V. Determination of the fatty acids in fish tissue and feed — comparison of different methods and statistical evaluation. ACTA CHROMATOGR 2018. [DOI: 10.1556/1326.2017.00165] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- D. Trbović
- Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Kaćanskog 13, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
| | - T. Polak
- University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Food Science and Technology, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - L. Demšar
- University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Food Science and Technology, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - N. Parunović
- Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Kaćanskog 13, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
| | - M. Dimitrijević
- University of Belgrade, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Bulevar oslobođenja 18, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
| | - D. Nikolić
- Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Kaćanskog 13, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
| | - V. Đorđević
- Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Kaćanskog 13, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
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Balmer JE, Ylitalo GM, Rowles TK, Mullin KD, Wells RS, Townsend FI, Pearce RW, Bolton JL, Zolman ES, Balmer BC, Schwacke LH. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in blood and blubber of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) at three northern Gulf of Mexico sites following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2018; 621:130-137. [PMID: 29179068 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2017] [Revised: 10/27/2017] [Accepted: 11/18/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), including those impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, inhabit the coastal and estuarine waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM). In response to the spill, dolphin health assessments conducted in Barataria Bay, Louisiana - a site that experienced heavy and prolonged oiling - uncovered a high prevalence of health abnormalities and individuals in poor body condition. Although the health effects observed were suggestive of petroleum toxicity, a lack of pre-spill information regarding dolphin health raises the possibility that other environmental factors may have contributed to the adverse health of dolphins in this oil-impacted area. To assess how exposure to other environmental pollutants may affect the health of northern GoM dolphin populations impacted by the DWH oil spill, a suite of 69 persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including PCBs, PBDEs and organochlorine pesticides, was determined in blood and a subset of blubber samples collected during health assessments of 145 bottlenose dolphins at three GoM sites: two oil impacted sites - Barataria Bay, LA (BB), and Mississippi Sound, MS (MS) and an unimpacted reference site - Sarasota Bay, FL (SB). Overall, levels of POPs at all three sites appeared comparable or lower than concentrations previously reported for coastal bottlenose dolphin populations outside of the northern GoM. POP levels measured in BB dolphins were also comparable or lower than those measured at the unimpacted reference site (SB) within the northern GoM. Additionally, the relationship between blubber and blood contaminant levels in a smaller subset of BB and SB suggests that BB animals were not experiencing elevated blood-contaminant concentrations as a result of their poor body condition. Cumulatively, these results suggest that background levels of POPs measured are unlikely to produce the health abnormalities previously reported for BB dolphins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer E Balmer
- Industrial Economics, Incorporated, 2067 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA; National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 331 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA.
| | - Gina M Ylitalo
- Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, WA 98112, USA
| | - Teresa K Rowles
- Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1315 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA
| | - Keith D Mullin
- Southeast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, 3209 Frederic Street, Pascagoula, MS 39567, USA
| | - Randall S Wells
- Chicago Zoological Society's Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, c/o Mote Marine Laboratory, 1600 Ken Thompson Parkway, Sarasota, FL 34236, USA
| | - Forrest I Townsend
- Bayside Hospital for Animals, 251 Racetrack Road NE, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32547, USA
| | - Ronald W Pearce
- Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, WA 98112, USA
| | - Jennie L Bolton
- Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, WA 98112, USA
| | - Eric S Zolman
- National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 331 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA
| | - Brian C Balmer
- National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 331 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA
| | - Lori H Schwacke
- National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 331 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA
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McKinney MA, Atwood TC, Iverson SJ, Peacock E. Temporal complexity of southern Beaufort Sea polar bear diets during a period of increasing land use. Ecosphere 2017. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.1633] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Melissa A. McKinney
- Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering; University of Connecticut; Storrs Connecticut 06269 USA
| | - Todd C. Atwood
- US Geological Survey; Alaska Science Center; Anchorage Alaska 99508 USA
| | - Sara J. Iverson
- Department of Biology; Dalhousie University; Halifax Nova Scotia B3H 4R2 Canada
| | - Elizabeth Peacock
- US Geological Survey; Alaska Science Center; Anchorage Alaska 99508 USA
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McKinney MA, Atwood T, Dietz R, Sonne C, Iverson SJ, Peacock E. Validation of adipose lipid content as a body condition index for polar bears. Ecol Evol 2014; 4:516-27. [PMID: 24634735 PMCID: PMC3936397 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.956] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2013] [Revised: 10/30/2013] [Accepted: 11/04/2013] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Body condition is a key indicator of individual and population health. Yet, there is little consensus as to the most appropriate condition index (CI), and most of the currently used CIs have not been thoroughly validated and are logistically challenging. Adipose samples from large datasets of capture biopsied, remote biopsied, and harvested polar bears were used to validate adipose lipid content as a CI via tests of accuracy, precision, sensitivity, biopsy depth, and storage conditions and comparisons to established CIs, to measures of health and to demographic and ecological parameters. The lipid content analyses of even very small biopsy samples were highly accurate and precise, but results were influenced by tissue depth at which the sample was taken. Lipid content of capture biopsies and samples from harvested adult females was correlated with established CIs and/or conformed to expected biological variation and ecological changes. However, lipid content of remote biopsies was lower than capture biopsies and harvested samples, possibly due to lipid loss during dart retrieval. Lipid content CI is a biologically relevant, relatively inexpensive and rapidly assessed CI and can be determined routinely for individuals and populations in order to infer large-scale spatial and long-term temporal trends. As it is possible to collect samples during routine harvesting or remotely using biopsy darts, monitoring and assessment of body condition can be accomplished without capture and handling procedures or noninvasively, which are methods that are preferred by local communities. However, further work is needed to apply the method to remote biopsies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melissa A McKinney
- Department of Biology, Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4R2, Canada ; Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, N9B 3P4, Canada
| | - Todd Atwood
- US Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center Anchorage, Alaska, 99508
| | - Rune Dietz
- Department of Biological Sciences, Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University Roskilde, DK-4000, Denmark
| | - Christian Sonne
- Department of Biological Sciences, Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University Roskilde, DK-4000, Denmark
| | - Sara J Iverson
- Department of Biology, Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Elizabeth Peacock
- US Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center Anchorage, Alaska, 99508
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Borgå K, Kidd KA, Muir DCG, Berglund O, Conder JM, Gobas FAPC, Kucklick J, Malm O, Powell DE. Trophic magnification factors: considerations of ecology, ecosystems, and study design. INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT 2012; 8:64-84. [PMID: 21674770 DOI: 10.1002/ieam.244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 304] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2010] [Revised: 03/15/2011] [Accepted: 06/07/2011] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Recent reviews by researchers from academia, industry, and government have revealed that the criteria used by the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants under the United Nations Environment Programme are not always able to identify the actual bioaccumulative capacity of some substances, by use of chemical properties such as the octanol-water partitioning coefficient. Trophic magnification factors (TMFs) were suggested as a more reliable tool for bioaccumulation assessment of chemicals that have been in commerce long enough to be quantitatively measured in environmental samples. TMFs are increasingly used to quantify biomagnification and represent the average diet-to-consumer transfer of a chemical through food webs. They differ from biomagnification factors, which apply to individual species and can be highly variable between predator-prey combinations. The TMF is calculated from the slope of a regression between the chemical concentration and trophic level of organisms in the food web. The trophic level can be determined from stable N isotope ratios (δ(15) N). In this article, we give the background for the development of TMFs, identify and discuss impacts of ecosystem and ecological variables on their values, and discuss challenges and uncertainties associated with contaminant measurements and the use of δ(15) N for trophic level estimations. Recommendations are provided for experimental design, data treatment, and statistical analyses, including advice for users on reporting and interpreting TMF data. Interspecies intrinsic ecological and organismal properties such as thermoregulation, reproductive status, migration, and age, particularly among species at higher trophic levels with high contaminant concentrations, can influence the TMF (i.e., regression slope). Following recommendations herein for study design, empirical TMFs are likely to be useful for understanding the food web biomagnification potential of chemicals, where the target is to definitively identify if chemicals biomagnify (i.e., TMF > or < 1). TMFs may be less useful in species- and site-specific risk assessments, where the goal is to predict absolute contaminant concentrations in organisms in relation to threshold levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katrine Borgå
- Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Gaustadalléen 21, 0349, Oslo, Norway.
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Kucklick J, Schwacke L, Wells R, Hohn A, Guichard A, Yordy J, Hansen L, Zolman E, Wilson R, Litz J, Nowacek D, Rowles T, Pugh R, Balmer B, Sinclair C, Rosel P. Bottlenose dolphins as indicators of persistent organic pollutants in the western North Atlantic Ocean and northern Gulf of Mexico. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2011; 45:4270-4277. [PMID: 21526819 DOI: 10.1021/es1042244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including legacy POPs (PCBs, chlordanes, mirex, DDTs, HCB, and dieldrin) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants were determined in 300 blubber biopsy samples from coastal and near shore/estuarine male bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) sampled along the U.S. East and Gulf of Mexico coasts and Bermuda. Samples were from 14 locations including urban and rural estuaries and near a Superfund site (Brunswick, Georgia) contaminated with the PCB formulation Aroclor 1268. All classes of legacy POPs in estuarine stocks varied significantly (p < 0.05) among sampling locations. POP profiles in blubber varied by location with the most characteristic profile observed in bottlenose dolphins sampled near the Brunswick and Sapelo estuaries along the Georgia coast which differed significantly (p < 0.001) from other sites. Here and in Sapelo, PCB congeners from Aroclor 1268 dominated indicating widespread food web contamination by this PCB mixture. PCB 153, which is associated with non-Aroclor 1268 PCB formulations, correlated significantly to human population indicating contamination from a general urban PCB source. Factors influencing regional differences of other POPs were less clear and warrant further study. This work puts into geographical context POP contamination in dolphins to help prioritize efforts examining health effects from POP exposure in bottlenose dolphins.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Kucklick
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Hollings Marine Laboratory, 331 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, South Carolina 29412, USA.
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Balmer BC, Schwacke LH, Wells RS, George RC, Hoguet J, Kucklick JR, Lane SM, Martinez A, McLellan WA, Rosel PE, Rowles TK, Sparks K, Speakman T, Zolman ES, Pabst DA. Relationship between persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and ranging patterns in common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from coastal Georgia, USA. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2011; 409:2094-2101. [PMID: 21356543 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.01.052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2010] [Revised: 01/27/2011] [Accepted: 01/28/2011] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are apex predators in coastal southeastern U.S. waters; as such they are indicators of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in coastal ecosystems. POP concentrations measured in a dolphin's blubber are influenced by a number of factors, including the animal's sex and ranging pattern in relation to POP point sources. This study examined POP concentrations measured in bottlenose dolphin blubber samples (n=102) from the Georgia, USA coast in relation to individual ranging patterns and specifically, distance of sightings from a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) point source near Brunswick, Georgia. Dolphin ranging patterns were determined based upon 5years of photo-identification data from two field sites approximately 40km apart: (1) the Brunswick field site, which included the Turtle/Brunswick River Estuary (TBRE), and (2) the Sapelo field site, which included the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve (SINERR). Dolphins were categorized into one of three ranging patterns from photo-identification data. Individuals with sighting histories exclusively within one of the defined field sites were considered to have either Brunswick or Sapelo ranging patterns. Individuals sighted in both field sites were classified as having a Mixed ranging pattern. Brunswick males had the highest concentrations of PCBs reported for any marine mammal. The pattern of PCB congeners was consistent with Aroclor 1268, a highly chlorinated PCB mixture associated with a Superfund site in Brunswick. PCB levels in Sapelo males were lower than in Brunswick males, but comparable to the highest levels measured in other dolphin populations along the southeastern U.S. Female dolphins had higher Aroclor 1268 proportions than males, suggesting that the highly chlorinated congeners associated with Aroclor 1268 may not be offloaded through parturition and lactation, as easily as less halogenated POPs. Individuals sighted farther from the Superfund point source had lower Aroclor 1268 proportions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian C Balmer
- University of North Carolina Wilmington, Department of Biology and Marine Biology, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA.
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