Bioaccumulation of organochlorines in the Arctic marine food web
- Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (Canada). Bedford Inst. of Oceanography
- Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada). Freshwater Inst.
Five classes of organochlorine (OC) compounds (hexachlorocyclohexane (HCB and HCHs), cyclodienes, isomers of DDT and its metabolites and congeners of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and toxaphene (CHBs)) have been detected in under-ice epontic particulate matter and tissue samples of marine biota from lower trophic levels of the Arctic Ocean at sites in Barrow Strait within the Canadian archipelago (75{degree}N), coastal (79{degree}N) and central Arctic basin (85{degree}N) locations. HCBs, PCBs, isomers of DDT and DDE, chlordane, dieldrin, alpha-endosulphan, HCB and {alpha}-HCH were present in quantifiable amounts in all samples. {beta}- and {gamma}-HCH and the cyclodienes aldrin, endrin, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, methoxychlor and mirex were detected but could not be quantified. All OCs measured in biota were also present in the Arctic atmosphere, particulate and dissolved fractions of snow, ice melt water and seawater, Small bodied marine organisms such as zooplankton and amphipods which are short-lived have a lower lipid content for storage of OCs than larger animals such as fish and mammals. Biomagnification factors calculated from presumed predator-prey links in the marine food web varied over two orders of magnitude for different OCs. Ratios for epontic particulates and plankton (< 10) were generally lower than values for trophic links between amphipods and published values for arctic marine fish and mammals (10--100). PCBs, DDT and chlordanes are biomagnified in the Arctic marine food web to a far greater degree than more abundant OC compounds such as HCHs and HCB that have a higher water solubility.
- OSTI ID:
- 211981
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137-; ISBN 1-880611-03-1; TRN: IM9617%%297
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) world conference, Vancouver (Canada), 5-9 Nov 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Second SETAC world congress (16. annual meeting): Abstract book. Global environmental protection: Science, politics, and common sense; PB: 378 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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