Article pubs.acs.org/est
Contaminants in Tracked Seabirds Showing Regional Patterns of Marine Pollution Atsuo Ito,† Rei Yamashita,‡ Hideshige Takada,‡ Takashi Yamamoto,†,§ Kozue Shiomi,⊥ Carlos Zavalaga,¶,◆ Tomoya Abe,¶ Shinichi Watanabe,∥ Maki Yamamoto,○ Katsufumi Sato,⊥ Hiroyoshi Kohno,# Ken Yoda,¶ Tomohiko Iida,∇ and Yutaka Watanuki*,† †
Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Hakodate 041-8611, Japan Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan § National Institute of Polar Research, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-8518, Japan ⊥ International Coastal Research Center, Atmosphere and Oceanic Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8564, Japan ¶ Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan ∥ Department of Marine BioScience, Faculty of Life Science & Biotechnology, Fukuyama University, Fukuyama, Hiroshima 729-0292, Japan ○ Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2188, Japan # Okinawa Regional Research Center, Tokai University, Taketomi, Okinawa 870-277, Japan ∇ Committee of Education of Hiroshima Prefecture, Naka-ku Motomachi 9042, Hiroshima 730-8514, Japan ◆ Facultad de Ingeniería Agro-Forestal y Eco-Negocios, Universidad Científica del Sur, Carretera Antigua Panamericana Sur Km 19, Lima 42, Perú ‡
S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: Ocean-scale monitoring of pollution is challenging. Seabirds are useful indicators because they travel over a broad foraging range. Nevertheless, this coarse spatial resolution is not fine enough to discriminate pollution in a finer scale. Previous studies have demonstrated that pollution levels are higher in the Sea of Japan and South and East China Seas than the Northen Pacific Ocean. To test these findings in a wide-ranging animal, we tracked streaked shearwaters (Calonectris leucomelas) from four islands in Japan using global positioning system (GPS) and measured persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the oil of their preen glands. The POPs did not change during 6 to 21 days when birds from Awashima were foraging only in the Sea of Japan, while it increased when they crossed to the Pacific through the Tsugaru Strait and foraged along the eastern coast of Hokkaido where industrial cities occur. These results indicate that POPs in the oil reflect relatively short-term exposure. Concentrations of POPs displayed greater variation among regions. Total polychlorinated biphenyls were highest in birds foraging in a small area of the semiclosed Seto Inland Sea surrounded by urbanized coast, p,p′-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was highest in birds foraging in the East China Sea, and total hexachlorocyclohexanes were highest in birds foraging in the Sea of Japan. All were lowest in birds foraging in the Pacific. This distribution of POPs concentration partly agrees with previous findings based on mussels, fish, and seawater and possibly reflects the mobility and emission sources of each type of POP. These results highlight the importance of information on the foraging area of highly mobile top predators to make them more effective monitors of regional marine pollution.
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sampling organism, the mussel,4 is sedentary along the shore, and the ocean-scale sampling of seawater is costly. Marine top predators can be suitable samplers of both inshore and offshore waters since they forage across a broad range and
INTRODUCTION
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are emitted from various industrial and agricultural areas, transported through the air and water with varying degrees of mobility depending on their volatility, and deposited locally in coastal and offshore marine environments.1 The POPs can then be bioaccumulated through the marine food web to cause adverse effects on various organisms.2,3 Identifying areas of high pollution is therefore an urgent public concern. However, monitoring pollution in offshore marine ecosystems is challenging, since the usual © 2013 American Chemical Society
Received: Revised: Accepted: Published: 7862
April 5, 2013 June 7, 2013 June 11, 2013 June 11, 2013 dx.doi.org/10.1021/es4014773 | Environ. Sci. Technol. 2013, 47, 7862−7867
Environmental Science & Technology
Article
Figure 1. (a) Locations of the four study colonies (double-circles): Awashima (AW), Funakoshi-Oshima (FO), Uwashima (UW), and Nakanokamishima (NK). Crosses indicate foraging sites of streaked shearwaters determined by GPS tracks for (b) 6 birds from AW when they were foraging only in the Sea of Japan (AW-J), (c) 4 birds from AW when they were foraging in the Sea of Japan and along the Pacific coast of Hokkaido (AW-P), (d) 1 bird from NK, (e) 4 birds from FO, and (f) 3 birds from UW. In (d), the dotted line marks the core area within which birds spend 50% of their time (
