Inter-species differences for polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers in marine top predators from the Southern North Sea: Part 1. Accumulation patterns in harbour seals and harbour porpoises

• Published in: Environmental Pollution
• Main Authors: Weijs, Liesbeth, Dirtu, Alin C, Das, Krishna, Gheorghe, Adriana, Reijnders, Peter, Neels, Hugo, Blust, Ronny, Covaci, Adrian
• Other Authors: MARE - Centre Interfacultaire de Recherches en Océanologie - ULiège
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Science 2009
• Subjects: harbour porpoise; harbour seal; Phocoena phocoena; North Sea; pollutants; polychlorinated biphenyls; polybrominated diphenyl ethers; PCBs; PBDEs; Life sciences; Zoology; Environmental sciences & ecology; Physical; chemical; mathematical & earth Sciences; Chemistry; Aquatic sciences & oceanology; Sciences du vivant; Zoologie; Sciences de l’environnement & écologie; Physique; chimie; mathématiques & sciences de la terre; Sciences aquatiques & océanologie; Harbour porpoise; Phoca vitulina
• Online Access: https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/1903; https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/1903/1/2008%20Environmental%20Pollution%20Weijs%20Part%201.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2008.09.024

peer reviewed Harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) and harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) are two representative top predator species of the North Sea ecosystem. The median values of sum of 21 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners and sum of 10 polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners were 23.1 mg/g lipid weight (lw) and 0.33 mg/g lw in blubber of harbour seals (n ¼ 28) and 12.4 mg/g lw and 0.76 mg/g lw in blubber of harbour porpoises (n¼ 35), respectively. For both species, the highest PCB concentrations were observed in adult males indicating bioaccumulation. On the contrary, the highest PBDE concentrations were measured in juveniles, likely due to better-developed metabolic capacities with age in adults. A higher contribution of lower chlorinated and non-persistent congeners, such as CB 52, CB 95, CB 101, and CB 149, together with higher contributions of other PBDE congeners than BDE 47, indicated that harbour porpoises are unable to metabolize these compounds. Harbour seals showed a higher ability to metabolize PCBs and PBDEs.