Levels and profiles of persistent organic pollutants in birds collected from an urbanized coastal region of South Korea

Abstract

Since birds tend to occupy upper trophic levels and thus accumulate a wide range of contaminants, bird has been widely used as bioindicators for environmental pollution, particularly by persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Although POPs monitoring has been actively conducted for abiotic and biotic samples such as air, water, sediment, bivalve, fish, and human milk in various locations of South Korea over the last decade, little information is available on POPs contamination of birds. In this study, legacy and emerging POPs were monitored in birds collected an urbanized coastal region of South Korea. Especially, black tailed gull and domestic pigeon were selected as main target species to examine the contamination status and accumulation features of POPs between marine and terrestrial ecosystems, respectively. The POPs concentration (unit: ng/g lipid weight) in resident birds was in the range of 71-7,120 (median value: 1,600) for PBDEs, 14-131,000 (13,400) for PCBs, 40-284,000 (11,200) for DDTs, nd-2,800(273) for CHLs, 23-2,020 (406) for HCHs, 2-1,520 (261) for HCB, and nd-48 (5) for pentachlorobenzene. The overall concentration of POPs was high in seagull compared to pigeon, which could be due to their different diet and trophic position. The stable isotope ratio of nitrogen and carbon showed that seagull enriched the heavier isotopes relative to pigeon. However, the level of emerging POPs monitoring has been actively conducted for abiotic and biotic samples such as air, water, sediment, bivalve, fish, and human milk in various locations of South Korea over the last decade, little information is available on POPs contamination of birds. In this study, legacy and emerging POPs were monitored in birds collected an urbanized coastal region of South Korea. Especially, black tailed gull and domestic pigeon were selected as main target species to examine the contamination status and accumulation features of POPs between marine and