TP9 Ecotoxicology of Reptiles
Tuesday, 15 November 2005: 8:00 AM - 6:30 PM in Exhibit Hall
(ALA-1117-837587) Anthropogenic flame retardant compounds (PBDEs) measured in loggerhead eggs (Caretta caretta) of the US eastern coast.
Alava, Juan1, 3, Keller, Jennifer2, Kukclick, John2, Scott, Geoff1, 3, 1 Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research (CCEHBR)/NOAA/NOS/NCCOS, Charleston, South Carolina, USA3 School of the Environment, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA2 National Institute of Standards and Technology, Hollings Marine Laboratory, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
ABSTRACT- Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are persistent organic contaminants broadly used as synthetic flame retardants since 1970. PBDEs have been detected in several species of marine mammals and seabirds, but not in marine turtles. The loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) has been recently utilized as a biological compartment in several ecotoxicological studies to conduct biomonitoring of pollutant concentrations (mercury, PCBs, pesticides, perfluorinated compounds) and to assess the potential effects of these contaminants on the health of this threatened species. PBDE congeners were measured in unhatched egg samples from 37 nests collected from beaches in North Carolina (NC) and both eastern and western Florida (FL) coasts in the summer of 2002. Yolk of eggs containing only early and middle stage embryos were pooled per nest. Twelve PBDEs congeners (BDE 17, 28, 47, 66, 71, 85, 99, 100, 138, 153, 154, 183) were measured by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in electron impact mode using a 60 m DB-5MS column. The NC nests had significantly higher concentrations of 
BDE (13.5 ng/g lipid) compared to eastern FL (2.23 ng/g lipid) and western FL nests (0.815 ng/g lipid; ANOVA p=0.001). This geographical variation is likely due to different foraging habitat during the seasonal migration and gradient of urbanization and industrialization along the eastern coast. Nesting females from NC are known to migrate to northern Atlantic Ocean waters to forage during the non-nesting season, while the females nesting further south migrate to more southern waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida coastal waters, and the Caribbean Sea. These spatial differences may be important because the northern subpopulation (e.g., NC), the one with higher PBDE concentrations, has been declining over the last three decades compared to the stable or increasing south FL subpopulation.
Key words: PBDEs, loggerhead turtle, eggs, geographical variation