Oil-related contaminants in Arctic seabirds ...

• Main Authors: Provencher, Jennifer, Crump, Doug, Mallory, Mark, Pauli, Bruce, Thomas, Phillipe
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network 2021
• Subjects: Baffin Bay; Baffin Island; Baffin; Black guillemot; Black-legged Kittiwake; Cepphus grylle; Davis Strait; Fulmarus glacialis; inuit; Northern Fulmar; rissa tridactyla; thick-billed murre; Uria lomvia; uria
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.21963/13164; https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch?doi_id=13164

We sampled four seabird species [black guillemot - (Cepphus grylle; n = 20), thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia; n = 30), black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla; n = 20) and northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis; n = 30)] in the Baffin Bay-Davis Strait region; an area where natural oil and gas seeps are present but lacking any large scale oil and gas projects. Inuit hunters collected the seabirds in Qaqulluit National Wildlife Area in July 2018 off the southeast corner of Baffin Island. Liver tissue of each bird was then analyzed for oil-related contaminants (Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds; PACs) and trace elements. We found detectable levels of PACs and several trace elements in all species examined. Northern fulmars had the highest concentrations of parent and alkylated PACs, which differed significantly from the other species. Alkylated PACs were higher than parent compounds in all four seabird species examined, with fulmars and murres having the highest levels detected. Overall, PAC concentrations in the ... : We studied the concentrations of oil-related contaminants in 4 seabird species in the Baffin Bay - Davis Strait region in response to the regional Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), which called for a greater understanding of the effects of natural oil seeps and anthropogenic released oil on ecosystems. We found that all seabird species examined have been exposed to naturally occurring types of oil, with levels of oil-related contaminants in coastal benthic feeding species higher than in the species that fed more offshore. There is a growing understanding of how oil pollution can affect aquatic ecosystems, including physical and chemical effects. One of the biggest challenges with detecting the effects of oil-related contaminants on biota is understanding background levels of contaminants due to natural sources and their effects prior to large scale oil and gas operations. Seabirds are effective indicators of pollution, and can be useful for tracking oil-related contaminants in the marine environment. ...