1. Persistent organic pollutants in green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) inhabiting two urbanized Southern California habitats.
- Author
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Barraza AD, Komoroske LM, Allen CD, Eguchi T, Gossett R, Holland E, Lawson DD, LeRoux RA, Lorenzi V, Seminoff JA, and Lowe CG
- Subjects
- Animals, California, Ecosystem, Organic Chemicals metabolism, Polychlorinated Biphenyls metabolism, Environmental Monitoring, Turtles metabolism, Water Pollutants, Chemical metabolism
- Abstract
Within Southern California, east Pacific green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) forage year-round, taking advantage of diverse food resources, including seagrass, marine algae, and invertebrates. Assessing persistent organic pollutants (POP) in green turtle aggregations in the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge (SBNWR, n = 17) and San Diego Bay (SDB, n = 25) can help quantify contamination risks for these populations. Blood plasma was analyzed for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorinated pesticides (OCPs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). PCBs and body size explained much of the separation of turtles by foraging aggregation in a principal component analysis. Turtles from SDB had significantly (p < 0.001) higher total PCBs than SBNWR turtles. Most PCBs detected in turtles were non-dioxin-like PCB congeners (153, 138, 99) that are associated with neurotoxicity. Recaptured turtles' POP levels changed significantly over time indicating significant variation in POP levels through time and space, even among adjacent foraging locations., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2020
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