Author Ruedel, Heinz, Fraunhofer IME Schmallenberg, Schmallenberg, Germany(P) |
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Co-author(s)
Mueller, Josef, Fraunhofer IME Schmallenberg, Schmallenberg, Germany
Juerling, Heinrich, Fraunhofer IME Schmallenberg, Schmallenberg, Germany
Schroter-Kermani, Christa, Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt), Dessau-Rosslau, Germany
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| Although perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) were used for many applications since the 1950s only in recent years their environmental relevance became obvious. Meanwhile the persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic potential of several PFCs has been proven. To assess concentration trends in marine biota over the last 20 years a retrospective monitoring was performed using samples from the German Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB). Since it is assumed that PFC levels are highest in top predators of marine food webs, eggs of herring gulls were chosen as indicators. Homogenate samples from the ESB covering the period 1988-2008 (North Sea, islands Trischen and Mellum) and 1991-2008 (Baltic Sea, island Heuwiese) were retrieved and analyzed for a set of 12 PFCs. Compounds detected with highest levels were PFOS and PFOA. North Sea eggs had higher PFOS concentrations than Baltic Sea eggs in most years. While the PFOS time series for Baltic Sea eggs showed an increasing trend from 21 ng/g ww in 1997 to 159 ng/g ww in 2008, North Sea eggs revealed no temporal trend. However, in eggs from Trischen high levels (up to 170 ng/g ww) were found throughout the period 1994-2000 while for eggs from Mellum higher levels were detected in 1993-1995 and 1998-2002 (up to 99 ng/g ww). Gull eggs from Heuwiese, situated in a region with negligible anthropogenic impacts showed lower PFOA levels than North Sea eggs. Especially in some years quite high PFOA levels were found for the North Sea sites (up to 120 ng/g) while in most other years levels were in the range 3 - 20 ng/g (Baltic Sea eggs: range <0.5 - 3 ng/g). Higher levels of PFOA detected in our study as compared to similar investigations are probably due to the more efficient extraction procedure which includes both acidic and alkaline treatments. |
