Comparative Body Compartment and Egg Distribution of New Contaminants in Great Lakes Herring Gulls

Session: Chemical Monitoring and Surveillance in the Great Lakes: Multimedia (1)

Robert Letcher, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Science and Technology Branch, Wildlife & Landscape Science, [email protected]
Tristan Smythe, Environment and Climate Change Canada, [email protected]
Wouter Gebbink, Environment and Climate Change Canada, [email protected]
Alana Greaves, Environment and Climate Change Canada, [email protected]

Abstract

Herring gulls (Larus argentatus) of the Great Lakes are primarily consumers of the aquatic ecosystem, and opportunistic consumers of terrestrial diet items. Herring gulls have been a sentinel species for long-term contaminant monitoring for the past 40 years. Conventional avian monitoring rely on the measurement of whole (i.e. homogenized) eggs or pools. However, in birds in general there are only few studies that have examined tissue-specific distribution of chemicals of (new) emerging environmental concern (CECs), and the associated extent of maternal transfer to their offspring in ovo. This study investigated the comparative tissue-specific (i.e. liver, adipose, muscle, blood (plasma and red blood cells), and brain) distribution of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), several non-PBDE flame retardants (FRs) and other novel brominated contaminants, per-/poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs) and organophosphate ester (OPE) FRs/plasticizers in mother herring gulls from Chantry Island, Lake Huron, and the extent and rate of in ovo transfer to their eggs (i.e. yolk and albumen). Among the results highlights, the extent of maternal transfer was substantially greater for PFASs (~80%), while OPE transfer was intermediate to PFASs and PBDE/FRs. These results emphasize the importance of understanding the distribution and extent of maternal transfer of CECs for future monitoring.

Twitter handle of presenter
@RobertLetcher3