PARENT SESSION
SP3 - Trophic Transfer
Chair: Brown, Paige¹, ¹ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, VA
Co-chair: Foster, Gregory², ² George Mason University, Washington, DC
2:10 PM to 5:30 PM - Sunday, 17 November 2002
Room Ballroom H

(110) Bioaccumulation and trophic transfer of Aroclor 1268 in fiddler crabs and clapper rails inhabiting a contaminated Georgia salt marsh.

Mills, Gary^*,1, Gaines, Karen¹, Cumbee, James¹, Jones, Morris¹, Bhutani, Surjeet¹, Stephens, Warren¹, ¹ Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, U. of Georgia, Aiken, SC

ABSTRACT- Clapper rails (Rallus longirostris) are secretive marsh birds that inhabit coastal salt marshes throughout the United States. This species has been studied throughout its range and has been used as a indicator species for environmental toxicology studies due to its predictable diet and high site fidelity. The clapper rails diet in the southeast consists primarily of marsh crabs, crayfish, mollusks, and polychaetes. Aroclor 1268 concentrations and polychlorinated biphenyl congener were measured in the marsh sediments, fiddler crabs, muscle and liver tissues of adult clapper rails, and the whole body burdens in chick hatchings in a contaminated salt marsh in Brunswick, Georgia.These data were used to determine the bioaccumulation and trophic transfer of Aroclor 1268 congeners in the fiddler crabs and clapper rails inhabiting this site.

Key words: PCBs, Aroclor 1268, clapper rails, fiddler crabs