Accumulation of persistent organic pollutants in the food chain of lake baikal |
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| Authors: | Olga V Poliakova Albert T Lebedev Valery S Petrosyan Osmo Hanninen Aristeo Renzoni Demetris Sawa |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Organic Chemistry , Moscow State M. V. Lomonosov University , Moscow, 119899, Russia;2. Department of Physiology , University of Kuopio , Kuopio, Finland;3. Department of Environmental Biology , University of Siena , Via delle Cerchia 3, Siena, 53100, Italy;4. School of Animal and Microbiol Sciences , The University of Reading , Reading, RG6 6AJ, UK |
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| Abstract: | Lake Baikal is the deepest and oldest freshwater lake in the world containing about 20% of the world's fresh water. The present state of its contamination with organic pollutants was studied during 1997–1998 by collecting samples of sediments, phytoplankton, Zooplankton, sponges, aquatic plants, algae, muscles of various fish species, eggs of various birds and blubber of seals. Samples were prepared and analysed using GC‐MS for semivolatile priority pollutants on the US EPA list, for the presence of organochlorine pesticides and for PCBs. The results showed that there was pronounced bioaccumulation of persistent organochlorine compounds along the trophic chain, leading to substantial residues of organochlorine compounds in seals (e.g. 0.87–25.3 ppm of p,p'‐DDT in blubber). |
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| Keywords: | DDT PCB seals |
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