Document n90K58OgeRaz8w1vbGQzr9o16

E. P. Wheeler Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Sea Birds from Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean by David W. Johnston Department of Zoology University oj Florida Gainesville, Fla. 32601 Introduction The widespread occurrence of pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB!s) and chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides has been well documented for a number of marine organisms in the Atlantic Ocean (JENSEN et al. 1969; RISEBROUGH et al. 1968; RISEBROUGH et al. 1972) as well as in the Pacific Ocean off California and Panama (Z1TK0 1971). Specifically, PCB's have been recently identified in marine birds from Antarctica (RISEBROUGH and CARMIGNANI 1972). Opportunity was provided for collecting vertebrates on Ascension Island, a remote volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean (757'S, 1422'W). On this island pelagic-feeding birds such as the Sooty Tern (Sterna fuscata) nest in huge colonies on the volcanic "fairs" or "plains" (ASHMOLE 1963) and others, such as the Fairy Tern (Gygis alba) and Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster), breed commonly on nearby cliffs (DGRWARD 1963). Some of these birds were taken in March 1972 for pollutant and pesticide analyees in our Florida laboratories. Materials and Methods With the aid of a small hand net, four adult and two nestling Sooty Terns, two adult Fairy Terns, and one immature Brown Booby were captured. The adult terns had been feeding on small fish and other marine life in the offshore waters, whereas the immature birds were being fed by their parents (one of the nestling terns regurgitated a small squid). From each bird a small amount of fat was removed from the subcutaneous depot in the interfurcular area as was also a piece of liver and much of the brain (except for the Brown Booby). These tissue samples were immediately immersed into individual vials of a VL solution of formaldehyde according to the method of FRENCH and JEFFERIES (1971) for transport to the Flo rida laboratories. After some two weeks of storage at ambient temperatures, each tissue was carefully dried on filter paper, throughly homogenized in sodium sulfate, and extracted in a soxhlet apparatus for 10 hrs. in petroleum ether. Extracts were poured into tared beakers and the ether evapor ated under a hood at room temperature. Beakers were reweighed and lipid weights recorded. Lipid residues were dissolved in acetoni trile saturated with hexane, transferred to a separatory funnel j i j ' i j | ! ; 1 j . j 1 ; ' , 368 Bulletin i>( r.nv irontur-nlal Ontniin*liin 4 Tuttmlng*, Vul. 10. Nn. f. ^ IVT.l hi Spuncrr-V. r!c \, * Y-.iA |it< DSW 030131 STLCOPCB4014093 jzlr ted -ZlC t en;;ani m . ric e on uch j*i), _aly- --ing oby . and e :r~n8 fat area r the into -o the Flo- cxhlet :oor. and ;nni.el . .aaaflMfck>tt.^i.^-T-.rJ|r' ,yp[r rltill)fi~~VV^1' 'Villi, and washed 4 times with hexane saturated with acetonitrile. After discarding the hexane washings, the acetonitrile fraction was transferred to a beaker and allowed to evaporate at room tempera ture. The residue was dissolved in hexane and placed on a 87. water deactivated florisil column (22x180mm). The column was eluted with 200 ml of a hexane: benzene mixture (3:1) and the eluate was concentrated or diluted, as necessary, for gas chrom atography. A Varlan 2100 gas chromatograph containing a 6'xl/4" gla^s column of 1:1 6.47. OV-210: 1.67. OV-17 on chromosorb W and a H Electron Capture detector was used for analysis. A second glass column of 1.57. OV-17/1.957. QFI on Gas Chrom Q of similar dimensions was used for confirmation. Other instrumental parame ters were injection port 210 C, column 200 and detector 215 with a N^ flow rate of 40 ml/min. Following preliminary gas chromatograph injections after flor isil cleanup, the eluate was brought to 10 ml with hexane and trans ferred to a column of silica gel ^10x70 mm) which had been washed with benzene and activated at 230 for three hours. Columns were eluted with 50 ml pentane and 200 ml benzene which were separately collected. This procedure was modified from that of SNYDER and REINERT (1971). These eluates were concentrated or diluted and in jected into the gas chromatograph. Portions of these eluates from some samples were subjected to solvent partitioning in systems of hexane: acetonitrile and iso-octane: 80% acetone. Results and Discussion None of the DDT metabolites or dieldrin was identified from the tissues removed from these birds. On the other hand, PCB's were present in all of the birds in one or more of the tissues with the greatest quantities being found in the adipose tissue (fat) (Table 1). Aroclor 1248 produced < standard curve most closely matching those of the bird samples, so their PCB's were quantified against this one standard aroclor although admittedly some additional aroclor(s) might have been present in extremely minute quantities. Precise accuracy of the quantities presented in Table 1 might be questioned due to (a) the small amounts of extracted lipids and (b) the transportation preservative used. FRENCH and JEFFERIES(1971) in prescribing 4% formaldehyde for temporary preservation tested only for the loss of dieldrin and DDT. Although they found no significant loss of these chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides, they made no tests for possible losses of PCB's using this temporary preservative. Hence, some PCB's could have been lost in this study. The important result, however, ever, is at least the qualitative demonstration of a- PCB in these pelagic birds from an extremely remote island in the South Atlan tic Ocean. Considering the absence of streams on this tiny island and the absence of all industrial wastes in the surrounding waters, the question must be asked as to the origin of the PCB in these birds' diets. Despite intensive studies of these species as breeding birds on Ascension Island (ASHMOLE 1963; DORWARD 1963), it is not possible to delineate or even circumscribe their feeding 369 0SW 030132 grounds, especially in the nonbreeding season. However, since Juvenile Sooty Terns are known to travel some 7,000 miles from Florida to Africa (ROBERTSON 1969), it seems plausible that the Ascension Island terns, especially the Sooty,are not only pelagic but could have obtained this pollutant in their food gathered anywhere over a huge expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. Especially is this explanation reasonable with the recent identification of PCB's in zooplankton from the North Atlantic (RISEBROUGH et al. 1972). A PCB, specifically aroclor 1254, has been demonstrated in breast muscle of other terns, namely deformed young Common (Sterna hlrundo) and Roseate (S. .douEallfi) terns from the Long island Sound region of New York (HAYS and RISEBROUGH 1972). The data from these birds, reported in ppm wet weight basis, cannot be compared directly with the lipid weight bases in the present paper, but their values of 4.9-140ppm (wet weight of breast mus cle) (median of about 25 ppm) would certainly be much higher on a lipid weight basis because breast muscle contains a relatively small amount of lipid. Thus the terns and booby from Ascension Island contained rather inconsequential Quantities of PCB's which quite likely at present are not deleterious to these remote insu lar populations. TABLE 1 Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Tissues of Sea Birds ADIPOSE TISSUE extractable lipid PCB* Sterna fuscata adcf 392.3mg 0.44 Sterna fuscata add1 316.6 9.22 Sterna fuscata adcf 133.7 0 Sterna fuscata ad9 175.2 5.03 Sterna fuscata Juvcf 133.2 0 Sterna fuscata Juv? 38.4 39.7 Gvgis alba add1 23.5 0 Gvgis alba adcf 2,0 + Sula leucoRaster im 2.3 + LXVER extractable lipid PCB* hot tun 2.6 0 5.2 0 0.7 + 6.3 2.2 2.8 + 0.8 + hot fun JBKAIN fextbactable lipid PCB** 12. Bog =t 17.3 11.0 4* 11.9 + 10.9 6.4 + 6.8 0 10.8 hot run * total PCB (chiefly aroclor 1248) Ih ppm, lipid weight ** inasmuch as the sample lipid weights wete so Small, PCB's are simply re corded as present (+) or absent (0) 470 DSW 030133 STLCOPCB4014095 . since _es from athat the rJy pelagic inhered fecially is in Ion of 331 t *1. rated in aaon Ihe Long 712). The s, cannot je -present neast musmigher on relatively rrenslon 7'13,s which jesmote insu- BRA1N tractable --ipid PCB** L2.8mg + 17.3 + 11.0 + 11.9 + ID.9 + 6.4 + 6.8 0 ID.8 + not run are aimply re- "vf Acknowledgments Transportation to Ascension Island and other aspects of this research were made possible by National Science Foundation grants to the author (General Ecology Section, NSF Grant GB-25872) and to Archie F. Carr, Jr. (Oceanography Section, NSF Grant GB-24113). David Carr provided valuable assistance in collecting the birds. For technical advice and assistance in the laboratory analyses, I am grateful to Neal P. Thompson, Patrick Rankin, and Ronald Bull, and for the use of a gas chromatograph at the Pesticide Research Laboratory of the University of Florida. References ASHMOLE, N. P., The biology of the Wideawake or Sooty Tern Sterna fuscata on Ascension Island, Ibis 103b, 297 (1963) DORWARD, D. F., The Fairy Tern Gygis alba on Ascension Island, Ibis 103b, 365 (1963) FRENCH, M. C., and JEFFERIES, D. J., The preservation of bio logical tissue for organochlorine insecticide analysis. Bull. Env. Contain. Toxicol. 6>,460 (1971) HAYS, H., and R1SEBR0UGH, R. W., Pollutant concentrations in abmomial young terns from Long Island Sound, Auk B9, 19 (1972) JENSEN, S., JOHNELS , A. G., 0LSS0N, M., and OTTERLIN, G., DDT and PCB in marine animals from Swedish waters. Nature 224 (5216), 247 (1969) RISEBROUGH, R. W., REICHE, P., PEAKVLL, D. B., HERMAN, S. G., and AIRVEN, M. N., polychlorinated biphenyls in the global ecosystem, Nature 220 (5172), 1098 (1968) RISEBROUGH, R. W., and CARMIGNANI, G. M., Proceedings of the Col loquium: Conservation on the Seventh Continent, Antarctica, in press (1972) RISEBROUGH, R. W., VREELAND, V., HARVEY, G. R., MIKLAS, H. P., and CARMIGNANI, G. M., PCB residues in Atlantic zooplankton. Bull. Env. Contam. Toxicol. 8, 345 (1972) ROBERTSON, W. B., Jr. Transatlantic migration of Juvenile Sooty Terns, Nature 223, 632 (1969) SNYDER, D., and REINERT, R., Rapid separation of polychlorinated biphenyls from DDT and its analogues in silica gel. Bull. Env. Contam. Toxicol. 6^,385 (1971) ZITKO, V., Polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides in some freshwater and marine fishes, Bull. Env. Contam. Toxicol. 6, 464 (1971) 371 DSW 030134 STLCOPCB4014096