TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluation of a marine mammal status and trends contaminants indicator for European waters
AU - Williams, Rosie S.
AU - Brownlow, Andrew
AU - Baillie, Andrew
AU - Barber, Jonathan L.
AU - Barnett, James
AU - Davison, Nicholas J.
AU - Deaville, Robert
AU - ten Doeschate, Mariel
AU - Penrose, Rod
AU - Perkins, Matthew
AU - Williams, Ruth
AU - Jepson, Paul D.
AU - Lyashevska, Olga
AU - Murphy, Sinéad
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/3/25
Y1 - 2023/3/25
N2 - Marine mammals are vulnerable to the bioaccumulation, biomagnification and lactational transfer of specific types of pollutants, such as industrial polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), due to their long-life spans, feeding at a high trophic level and unique fat stores that can serve as depots for these lipophilic contaminants. Currently, European countries are developing indicators for monitoring pollutants in the marine environment and assessing the state of biodiversity, requirements under both Regional Seas Conventions and European legislation. As sentinel species for marine ecosystem and human health, marine mammals can be employed to assess bioaccumulated contaminants otherwise below current analytical detection limits in water and lower trophic level marine biota. To aid the development of Regional Seas marine mammal contaminants indicators, as well as Member States obligations under descriptor 8 of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the current study aims to further develop appropriate methodological standards using data collected by the established UK marine mammal pollutant monitoring programme (1990 to 2017) to assess the trends and status of PCBs in harbour porpoises. Within this case study, temporal trends of PCB blubber concentration in juvenile harbour porpoises were analysed using multiple linear regression models and toxicity thresholds for the onset of physiological (reproductive and immunological) endpoints were applied to all sex-maturity groups. Mean PCB blubber concentrations were observed to decline in all harbour porpoise Assessment Units and OSPAR Assessment Areas in UK waters. However, a high proportion of animals were exposed to concentrations deemed to be a toxicological threat, though the relative proportion declined in most Assessment Units/Areas over the last 10 years of the assessment. Recommendations were made for improving the quality of the assessment going forward, including detailing monitoring requirements for the successful implementation of such an indicator.
AB - Marine mammals are vulnerable to the bioaccumulation, biomagnification and lactational transfer of specific types of pollutants, such as industrial polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), due to their long-life spans, feeding at a high trophic level and unique fat stores that can serve as depots for these lipophilic contaminants. Currently, European countries are developing indicators for monitoring pollutants in the marine environment and assessing the state of biodiversity, requirements under both Regional Seas Conventions and European legislation. As sentinel species for marine ecosystem and human health, marine mammals can be employed to assess bioaccumulated contaminants otherwise below current analytical detection limits in water and lower trophic level marine biota. To aid the development of Regional Seas marine mammal contaminants indicators, as well as Member States obligations under descriptor 8 of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the current study aims to further develop appropriate methodological standards using data collected by the established UK marine mammal pollutant monitoring programme (1990 to 2017) to assess the trends and status of PCBs in harbour porpoises. Within this case study, temporal trends of PCB blubber concentration in juvenile harbour porpoises were analysed using multiple linear regression models and toxicity thresholds for the onset of physiological (reproductive and immunological) endpoints were applied to all sex-maturity groups. Mean PCB blubber concentrations were observed to decline in all harbour porpoise Assessment Units and OSPAR Assessment Areas in UK waters. However, a high proportion of animals were exposed to concentrations deemed to be a toxicological threat, though the relative proportion declined in most Assessment Units/Areas over the last 10 years of the assessment. Recommendations were made for improving the quality of the assessment going forward, including detailing monitoring requirements for the successful implementation of such an indicator.
KW - Bio-indicators
KW - MSFD
KW - Marine Strategy Framework Directive
KW - Marine mammals
KW - OSPAR
KW - PCB
KW - Pollution
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145775844&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.161301
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.161301
M3 - Article
C2 - 36592909
AN - SCOPUS:85145775844
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 866
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 161301
ER -