PM05 Bioaccumulation and Kinetics of POPs
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Monday
(PM032) Trends in the accumulation of POPs by rainbow smelt collected from Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron.
Rice, C.1, Chernyak, S.2, Begnoche, L.3, Quintal, R.3, Hickey, J.3, Vinyard, B.4, 1 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Env. Qual. Lab, Beltsville, MD, USA2 University of Michigan, School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA3 USGS, Great Lakes Science Center, Ann Arbor, MI, USA4 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Biometrics, Beltsville, MD, USA
ABSTRACT- Data are presented for selected organochlorine (OC) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) concentrations in archive samples of rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) collected from three of the Great Lakes (Huron, Michigan and Superior). The specific OCs measured were total toxaphene (t-tox), total PCB (t-PCB), total chlordane (t-Chlor), and p,p'-DDE). For the PBDEs the concentrations of the most abundant homologue, BDE-47, is reported. The collections span the years 1983 to 1999 and the data represent analyses of composite collections from at least two fixed sites from each of the three lakes. With the exception of t-PCB and t-tox in Lake Superior all of the OC data could be fitted to exponential decay profiles that defined loss half-lives ranging from 5.7 years for t-tox at the Saugatuck collection site in Lake Michigan to 11.3 years for t-Chlor in Lake Superior (three sites combined) while t-PCB and t-tox in Lake Superior remained essential constant. The trends for BDE-47 in all three lakes followed an exponential increase over the sampled period with doubling times ranging from 1.58 years to 2.94 years for the two respective areas in Lake Huron, Alpena + Rockport and Port Austin. The Lake Michigan and Superior increases were, 1.75 and 2.16 years, respectively. All of these BDE-47 increases are much more rapid than reported by other research groups for fish from the Great Lakes and may reflect the fact that rainbow smelt respond more quickly to ambient changes in contaminant exposure levels than larger, fattier fish such as lake trout.
Key words: rainbow smelt, POPs, PBDEs, Trends