Accumulation and lactational transfer of PCBs and pesticides in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from Svalbard, Norway
The harbor seal population on Svalbard, the northernmost breeding site for this species, appears to have a truncatedage distribution with older animals being largely absent.PCBs and pesticides were measured in harbor seal males,females, milk and pups from Svalbard to explore whether contaminant expo...
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Norwegian Polar Institute
2008
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npolardata:oai:npolar.no:dataset/ab1ba7fc-9f60-5f27-a53a-024595657df2 2024-03-03T22:15:37+00:00 Accumulation and lactational transfer of PCBs and pesticides in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from Svalbard, Norway Kovacs, Kit M. Wolkers, Hans Lydersen, Christian BEGINDATE: 2003-01-01 ENDDATE: 2003-12-31 ENVELOPE(11.16666667,11.16666667,78.55,78.55) OCEAN, ATLANTIC OCEAN, NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN, SVALBARD AND JAN MAYEN, Prins Karls Forland GEOGRAPHIC REGION, ARCTIC GEOGRAPHIC REGION, POLAR 2008-07-10 http://data.npolar.no/dataset/ab1ba7fc-9f60-5f27-a53a-024595657df2 unknown Norwegian Polar Institute BIOTA biology EARTH SCIENCE BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES MAMMALS CARNIVORES SEALS/SEA LIONS/WALRUSES BIOSPHERE ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS Dataset 2008 npolardata 2017-09-07T07:14:17Z The harbor seal population on Svalbard, the northernmost breeding site for this species, appears to have a truncatedage distribution with older animals being largely absent.PCBs and pesticides were measured in harbor seal males,females, milk and pups from Svalbard to explore whether contaminant exposure or accumulation is a possible causeof premature death for these animals.The levels and patterns of these contaminants were assessed. In addition,transfer of these compounds from females to their pups during lactation was assessed.Both PCB and pesticide levelswere low compared to more southern harbor seal populations.Animals from Svalbard contained 5–10 times lowercontaminant levels, compared to seals from the Norwegian mainland, and 30 times lower concentrations than thoseof harbor seals from the Gulf of St.Lawr ence in eastern Canada. Ringed seals from Svalbard have contaminant levelsthat are comparable to the harbor seals, probably because the diet, as well as the metabolic capacity, of the twospecies is similar at this location.The findings of this study indicate that the early mortality observed for harbor sealson Svalbard, is not likely to be due to contaminant exposure.Female harbor seals transfer a modified contaminantmixture to their pups compared to that found within their own tissues; compounds with higher log Kow, such as somepenta-chlorinated PCBs, were selectively transferred into milk.As a result, the contaminant pattern between malesand females differed, with penta-chlorinated PCBs more abundant in males than in females.In addition, pups receivea relatively high amount of the less lipophylic compounds and a low amount of the more lipophylic compounds.Thesimilar contaminant pattern in milk and pups suggested that they are probably unable to metabolize contaminants andconsequently, accumulate all ingested chemicals. Dataset Arctic harbor seal Jan Mayen North Atlantic Phoca vitulina Prins Karls Forland Svalbard walrus* Norwegian Polar Data Centre Arctic Svalbard Canada Norway Jan Mayen Svalbard ENVELOPE(20.000,20.000,78.000,78.000) Prins Karls Forland ENVELOPE(11.175,11.175,78.543,78.543) ENVELOPE(11.16666667,11.16666667,78.55,78.55) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Norwegian Polar Data Centre |
op_collection_id |
npolardata |
language |
unknown |
topic |
BIOTA biology EARTH SCIENCE BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES MAMMALS CARNIVORES SEALS/SEA LIONS/WALRUSES BIOSPHERE ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS |
spellingShingle |
BIOTA biology EARTH SCIENCE BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES MAMMALS CARNIVORES SEALS/SEA LIONS/WALRUSES BIOSPHERE ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS Kovacs, Kit M. Wolkers, Hans Lydersen, Christian Accumulation and lactational transfer of PCBs and pesticides in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from Svalbard, Norway |
topic_facet |
BIOTA biology EARTH SCIENCE BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES MAMMALS CARNIVORES SEALS/SEA LIONS/WALRUSES BIOSPHERE ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS |
description |
The harbor seal population on Svalbard, the northernmost breeding site for this species, appears to have a truncatedage distribution with older animals being largely absent.PCBs and pesticides were measured in harbor seal males,females, milk and pups from Svalbard to explore whether contaminant exposure or accumulation is a possible causeof premature death for these animals.The levels and patterns of these contaminants were assessed. In addition,transfer of these compounds from females to their pups during lactation was assessed.Both PCB and pesticide levelswere low compared to more southern harbor seal populations.Animals from Svalbard contained 5–10 times lowercontaminant levels, compared to seals from the Norwegian mainland, and 30 times lower concentrations than thoseof harbor seals from the Gulf of St.Lawr ence in eastern Canada. Ringed seals from Svalbard have contaminant levelsthat are comparable to the harbor seals, probably because the diet, as well as the metabolic capacity, of the twospecies is similar at this location.The findings of this study indicate that the early mortality observed for harbor sealson Svalbard, is not likely to be due to contaminant exposure.Female harbor seals transfer a modified contaminantmixture to their pups compared to that found within their own tissues; compounds with higher log Kow, such as somepenta-chlorinated PCBs, were selectively transferred into milk.As a result, the contaminant pattern between malesand females differed, with penta-chlorinated PCBs more abundant in males than in females.In addition, pups receivea relatively high amount of the less lipophylic compounds and a low amount of the more lipophylic compounds.Thesimilar contaminant pattern in milk and pups suggested that they are probably unable to metabolize contaminants andconsequently, accumulate all ingested chemicals. |
format |
Dataset |
author |
Kovacs, Kit M. Wolkers, Hans Lydersen, Christian |
author_facet |
Kovacs, Kit M. Wolkers, Hans Lydersen, Christian |
author_sort |
Kovacs, Kit M. |
title |
Accumulation and lactational transfer of PCBs and pesticides in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from Svalbard, Norway |
title_short |
Accumulation and lactational transfer of PCBs and pesticides in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from Svalbard, Norway |
title_full |
Accumulation and lactational transfer of PCBs and pesticides in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from Svalbard, Norway |
title_fullStr |
Accumulation and lactational transfer of PCBs and pesticides in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from Svalbard, Norway |
title_full_unstemmed |
Accumulation and lactational transfer of PCBs and pesticides in harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from Svalbard, Norway |
title_sort |
accumulation and lactational transfer of pcbs and pesticides in harbor seals (phoca vitulina) from svalbard, norway |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
http://data.npolar.no/dataset/ab1ba7fc-9f60-5f27-a53a-024595657df2 |
op_coverage |
BEGINDATE: 2003-01-01 ENDDATE: 2003-12-31 ENVELOPE(11.16666667,11.16666667,78.55,78.55) OCEAN, ATLANTIC OCEAN, NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN, SVALBARD AND JAN MAYEN, Prins Karls Forland GEOGRAPHIC REGION, ARCTIC GEOGRAPHIC REGION, POLAR |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(20.000,20.000,78.000,78.000) ENVELOPE(11.175,11.175,78.543,78.543) ENVELOPE(11.16666667,11.16666667,78.55,78.55) |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Canada Norway Jan Mayen Svalbard Prins Karls Forland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Canada Norway Jan Mayen Svalbard Prins Karls Forland |
genre |
Arctic harbor seal Jan Mayen North Atlantic Phoca vitulina Prins Karls Forland Svalbard walrus* |
genre_facet |
Arctic harbor seal Jan Mayen North Atlantic Phoca vitulina Prins Karls Forland Svalbard walrus* |
_version_ |
1792545072441458688 |