TY - JOUR
TI - Ecological and spatial variations of legacy and emerging contaminants in
white-tailed sea eagles from Germany: Implications for prioritisation
and future risk management
AU - Badry, Alexander
AU - Treu, Gabriele
AU - Gkotsis, Georgios
AU - Nika,
AU - Maria-Christina
AU - Alygizakis, Nikiforos
AU - Thomaidis, Nikolaos S. and
AU - Voigt, Christian C.
AU - Krone, Oliver
JO - Environment International
PY - 2022
VL - 158
TODO - null
SP - null
PB - PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
SN - 0160-4120
TODO - 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106934
TODO - Baltic Sea; Birds of prey; Chemicals of emerging concern; Persistent
organic pollutants; Stable isotopes; JANUS tool
TODO - The increasing use of chemicals in the European Union (EU) has resulted
in environmental emissions and wildlife exposures. For approving a
chemical within the EU, producers need to conduct an environmental risk
assessment, which typically relies on data generated under laboratory
conditions without considering the ecological and landscape context. To
address this gap and add information on emerging contaminants and
chemical mixtures, we analysed 30 livers of white-tailed sea eagles
(Haliaeetus albicilla) from northern Germany with high resolution-mass
spectrometry coupled to liquid and gas chromatography for the
identification of >2400 contaminants. We then modelled the influence of
trophic position (delta N-15), habitat (delta N-13) and landscape on
chemical residues and screened for persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic
(PBT) properties using an in silico model to unravel mismatches between
predicted PBT properties and observed exposures. Despite having
generally low PBT scores, most detected contaminants were medicinal
products with oxfendazole and salicylamide being most frequent.
Chemicals of the Stockholm Convention such as 4,4'-DDE and PCBs were
present in all samples below toxicity thresholds. Among PFAS, especially
PFOS showed elevated concentrations compared to other studies. In
contrast, PFCA levels were low and increased with delta N-15, which
indicated an increase with preying on piscivorous species. Among plant
protection products, spiroxamine and simazine were frequently detected
with increasing concentrations in agricultural landscapes. The in silico
model has proven to be reliable for predicting PBT properties for most
chemicals. However, chemical exposures in apex predators are complex and
do not solely rely on intrinsic chemical properties but also on other
factors such as ecology and landscape. We therefore recommend that
ecological contexts, mixture toxicities, and chemical monitoring data
should be more frequently considered in regulatory risk assessments,
e.g. in a weight of evidence approach, to trigger risk management
measures before adverse effects in individuals or populations start to
manifest.
ER -