| Summary: | Abstract: In the present work, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodi-phenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and metabolites, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) were analyzed in three Antarctic notothenioids fish species: Trematomus newnesi (TRN), Notothenia coriiceps (NOC) and Notothenia rossii (NOR). The contribution of each POP-family to the total load was as follows: Sigma PCB (40%) > Sigma DDT (27%) > Sigma PBDEs (23%) > Sigma HCH (10%). Among the 23 PCB congeners analyzed, penta-CBs homologues were the prevalent group, followed by hexa-CBs and hepta-CBs. DDT and its metabolites presented the following trend: p,p'-DDT > p,p'-DDE similar to p,p'-DDD. PBDE profile was dominated by BDE-47 and BDE-99 congeners, followed by BDE-100 > BDE-28 > BDE-154, BDE-153. Among HCHs, the gamma-HCH isomer was detected in all samples, constituting 69% total HCH load, while alpha-HCH and beta-HCH contributions were 15% and 16%, respectively. The levels of POPs reported here suggest that NOR and NOC are more susceptible to accumulate the analyzed contaminants than TRN, a species not previously analyzed for POPs. Distribution of POPs among different tissues of the three species (muscle, liver, gonads, and gills) was also investigated. Considering lipid weight, the general pattern-of POPs distribution in tissues indicated that while gonads showed higher levels of PCBs, DDTs and HCH, the most significant PBDE concentrations were recorded in gills. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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