Polyhalogenated compounds (PCBs, chlordanes, HCB and BFRs) in four polar bears (Ursus maritimus) that swam malnourished from East Greenland to Iceland

Vetter, Walter; Gall, Vanessa; Skírnisson, Karl

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.07.011

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are a class of BFRs and man-made non-naturally occurring chemicals utilized extensively as additives in a wide variety of consumer products, such as electronic devices, vehicles, building materials, airplanes, ships, and furniture foam and upholstery. Owing to their environmental persistence and accumulation in adipose tissues, PBDEs are ubiquitous in the atmospheric environment (Chao et al, 2014a;Cincinelli et al, 2014;Zhou et al, 2014;Shy et al, 2015), in soils, sediments, and plants , water and fishes (Chokwe et al, 2015), and marine and terrestrial mammals (Leonel et al, 2014;Vetter et al, 2015). The animal studies showed that PBDEs disrupted thyroid function and spermatogenesis (Bowers et al, 2015;Huang et al, 2015), impaired mitochondrial function (Huang et al, 2015), induced hepatotoxicity (Ćurčić et al, 2015), caused developmental abnormalities (Berger et al, 2014), affects neurological behaviour (Costa and Giordano, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Levels of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Air-Conditioner Filter Dust Used to Assess Health Risks in Clinic and Electronic Plant Employees

Chou

Kao

Chuang

et al. 2016

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Because consumer products release them, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are frequently present in a variety of indoor environments including homes and workplaces. Our goal was to investigate PBDEs contamination of workplace air-conditioner filter dust to assess the health effects of contaminated dust on workers with occupational exposure. Nine medical clinics, four dental clinics, eight factory offices, and six factory clean rooms were selected in southern Taiwan between April 2013 and September 2014. Air-conditioner-filter dust was collected by a high-efficiency vacuum cleaner and then PBDEs were analyzed by a high-resolution gas chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Levels of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Air-Conditioner Filter Dust Used to Assess Health Risks in Clinic and Electronic Plant Employees

Chou

Kao

Chuang

et al. 2016

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…38 Lipid extraction has been described in detail in a previous study. 38 Briefly, ∼15−20 g of polar bear liver samples and ∼2.3 g of polar bear adipose tissue were lyophilized, followed by open-vessel microwave-assisted extraction (FOV-MAE). 38,39 Liver fat extracts were stored in the dark at −20 °C diluted in C/E mixture (46:54, w/w) until use.…”

Section: ■ Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…27, 65.9 min) only, or both mixtures (Table S2, Supporting Information). Liver samples and adipose tissue were available from four polar bears ( U. maritimus ) which swam malnourished from East Greenland to Iceland in 2008, 2010, and 2011 . Lipid extraction has been described in detail in a previous study .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis and Characterization of Polychlorinated Hydroxybornanes as Metabolites of Toxaphene Using a Polar Bear Model

Reger

Gallistl

Skírnisson

et al. 2017

Environ. Sci. Technol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abiotic and biotic transformation of toxaphene (camphechlor) results in the selective enrichment of recalcitrant congeners while other, less persistent compounds of technical toxaphene (CTTs) are degraded. Until now, there has been little knowledge on oxidation transformation of toxaphene. For instance, the existence of hydroxylated CTTs (OH-CTTs) in authentic environmental and food samples has not been proven. For this reason, we synthesized a mixture consisting of tetra- to heptachlorinated OH-CTTs and simplified it by countercurrent chromatography (CCC). Thus, 227 OH-CTTs were detected in the CCC fractions (12 tetra-, 117 penta-, 81 hexa-, and 17 heptachlorinated OH-CTTs), which was >50% more than detected before the fractionation. One CCC fraction consisting of only 18 OH-CTTs was used to develop a sample cleanup method which aimed to remove CTTs, isobaric PCBs, and sample matrix. The final cleanup procedure consisted of (i) gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and adsorption chromatography using (ii) deactivated and (iii) activated silica gel. Hence, up to 320 and 4350 μg/kg lipid weight of octa- and nonachlorinated CTTs were detected in four liver samples and adipose tissue of polar bears, respectively. Furthermore, the presence of one hexachlorinated OH-CTT isomer could be verified in the samples, which was about 1% of the octachlorinated CTTs determined in the liver samples.

show abstract

“…A likely route for polar bears arriving on Iceland is from the east coast of Greenland on pack ice that is exported out of Fram Strait, which is the primary region of sea ice export from the Arctic basin (Perovich et al, 1989). The eastern Greenland subpopulation is geographically closest to Iceland and polar bears roam along the entire coastline (Laidre et al, 2015a), so eastern Greenland has been assumed to be the source of polar bears reaching Iceland (Vetter, Gall & Sk ırnisson, 2015). However, our study suggests that besides the geographically proximate subpopulation of eastern Greenland, vagrants arriving on Iceland may come from subpopulations from all four ecoregions (Amstrup et al, 2008): the vagrant individuals are most genetically similar to individuals from eastern Greenland, western Greenland, and Alaska, and each shows different clustering affinities for autosomal microsatellites.…”

Section: Comparably High Genetic Variability Of Vagrant Polar Bears Omentioning

confidence: 99%

High genetic variability of vagrant polar bears illustrates importance of population connectivity in fragmented sea ice habitats

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and sea ice forecasts suggest that Arctic sea ice will decline markedly in coming decades. Expected effects on the entire ecosystem include a contraction of suitable polar bear habitat into one or few refugia. Such large-scale habitat decline and fragmentation could lead to reduced genetic diversity. Here we compare genetic variability of four vagrant polar bears that reached Iceland with that in recognized subpopulations from across the range, examining 23 autosomal microsatellites, mitochondrial control region sequences and Y-chromosomal markers. The vagrants' genotypes grouped with different genetic clusters and showed similar genetic variability at autosomal microsatellites (expected heterozygosity, allelic richness, and individual heterozygosity) as individuals in recognized subpopulations. Each vagrant carried a different mitochondrial haplotype. A likely route for polar bears to reach Iceland is via Fram Strait, a major gateway for the physical exportation of sea ice from the Arctic basin. Vagrant polar bears on Iceland likely originated from more than one recognized subpopulation, and may have been caught in sea ice export during long-distance movements to the East Greenland area. Although their potentially diverse geographic origins might suggest that these vagrants encompass much higher genetic variability than vagrants or dispersers in other regions, the four Icelandic vagrants encompassed similar genetic variability as any four randomly picked individuals from a single subpopulation or from the entire sample. We suggest that this is a consequence of the low overall genetic variability and weak range-wide genetic structuring of polar bears -few dispersers can represent a large portion of the species' gene pool. As predicted by theory and our demographic simulations, continued gene flow will be necessary to counteract loss of genetic variability in increasingly fragmented Arctic habitats. Similar considerations will be important in the management of other taxa that utilize sea ice habitats.

show abstract

Polyhalogenated compounds (PCBs, chlordanes, HCB and BFRs) in four polar bears (Ursus maritimus) that swam malnourished from East Greenland to Iceland

Cited by 14 publications

References 32 publications

Levels of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Air-Conditioner Filter Dust Used to Assess Health Risks in Clinic and Electronic Plant Employees

Levels of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Air-Conditioner Filter Dust Used to Assess Health Risks in Clinic and Electronic Plant Employees

Analysis and Characterization of Polychlorinated Hydroxybornanes as Metabolites of Toxaphene Using a Polar Bear Model

High genetic variability of vagrant polar bears illustrates importance of population connectivity in fragmented sea ice habitats

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About