Contamination of an arctic terrestrial food web with marine-derived persistent organic pollutants transported by breeding seabirds |
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Authors: | Emily S Choy Linda E Kimpe Mark L Mallory John P Smol Jules M Blais |
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Institution: | a Program for Chemical and Environmental Toxicology, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada b Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Iqaluit, NU, X0A 0H0, Canada c Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL), Department of Biology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada |
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Abstract: | At Cape Vera, Devon Island (Nunavut, Canada), a colony of northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) concentrates and releases contaminants through their guano to the environment. We determined whether persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from seabirds were transferred to coastal food webs. Snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) were the most contaminated species, with ∑PCB and ∑DDT (mean: 168, 106 ng/g ww) concentrations surpassing environmental guidelines for protecting wildlife. When examined collectively, PCB congeners and DDT in jewel lichen (Xanthoria elegans) were lower in samples taken farther from the seabird colony, and increased with increasing δ15N values. However, only concentrations of p’p-DDE:∑DDT and PCB-95 were significantly correlated inversely with distance from the seabird cliffs. Linkages between marine-derived POPs and their concentrations in terrestrial mammals were less clear. Our study provides novel contaminant data for these species and supports biovector transport as a source of organic contaminants to certain components of the terrestrial food web. |
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Keywords: | Biotransport Food webs Organic contaminants High Arctic Seabirds PCBs |
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