Interspecies and spatial trends in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Atlantic and Mediterranean pelagic seabirds |
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Authors: | Roscales Jose L González-Solís Jacob Calabuig Pascual Jiménez Begoña |
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Affiliation: | a Research Institute of Biodiversity (IRBio) and department of Animal Biology (Vertebrates), Barcelona University, Av Diagonal 645, 08028 Barcelona, Spain b Department of Instrumental Analysis and Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Organic Chemistry, CSIC, Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain c Wildlife Fauna Tafira Recuperation Center, Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain |
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Abstract: | PAHs were analyzed in the liver of 5 species of pelagic seabirds (Procellariiformes) from the northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The main objective was to assess the trophic and geographic trends of PAHs in seabirds to evaluate their suitability as bioindicators of chronic marine pollution by these compounds. Although higher levels of PAHs have been described in the Mediterranean compared to other oceanic regions, we did not find significant spatial patterns and observed only minor effects of the geographic origin on seabird PAHs. However, we found significant higher PAH levels in petrel compared to shearwater species, which could be related to differences in their exploitation of mesopelagic and epipelagic resources, respectively, and the vertical dynamic of PAHs in the water column. Overall, although this study enhances the need of multi-species approaches to show a more comprehensive evaluation of marine pollution, seabirds emerged as poor indicators of pelagic chronic PAH levels. |
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Keywords: | Organic pollutants Trophic ecology Bioindicator Petrel Shearwater |
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