PMID- 32097839
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20200603
LR  - 20200603
IS  - 1879-1026 (Electronic)
IS  - 0048-9697 (Linking)
VI  - 718
DP  - 2020 May 20
TI  - First assessment of pollutant exposure in two balaenopterid whale populations 
      sampled in the Svalbard Archipelago, Norway.
PG  - 137327
LID - S0048-9697(20)30837-8 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137327 [doi]
AB  - Pollutant concentrations are poorly known for the largest animals on Earth, blue 
      whales Balaenoptera musculus and fin whales Balaenoptera physalus. In this study, 
      concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) were determined in blubber 
      biopsies and stable isotope values for nitrogen (delta(15)N) and carbon (delta(13)C) were 
      measured using skin biopsies for 18 blue whales and 12 fin whales sampled in 
      waters surrounding the Svalbard Archipelago, Norway. The samples were collected 
      in summer during the period 2014-2018. POPs were dominated by DDTs, PCBs and 
      toxaphenes, with median concentrations in blue/fin whales being 208/341, 127/275 
      and 133/233 ng/g lipid weight, respectively. Linear models indicated that 
      pollutant concentrations were 1.6-3 times higher in fin whales than in blue 
      whales, which is likely related to the higher trophic positions of fin whales, as 
      indicated by their higher delta(15)N. Lower delta(13)C in fin whales suggests that they 
      feed at higher latitudes than blue whales; these values were not correlated with 
      pollutant concentrations. Pollutant levels were approximately twice as high in 
      males compared to females (intraspecifically), which indicates that females of 
      these species offload pollutants to their offspring during gestation and 
      lactation, similar to many other mammalian species. Pollutant concentrations in 
      balaenopterid whales from Svalbard waters were generally much lower than in 
      conspecific whales from the Mediterranean Sea or the Gulf of California, but 
      higher than those in conspecifics from the Antarctic Peninsula.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
FAU - Tartu, Sabrina
AU  - Tartu S
AD  - Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, Tromso N-9296, Norway.
FAU - Fisk, Aaron T
AU  - Fisk AT
AD  - School of the Environment, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, 
      Canada.
FAU - Gotsch, Arntraut
AU  - Gotsch A
AD  - Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Fram Centre, Tromso N-9296, Norway.
FAU - Kovacs, Kit M
AU  - Kovacs KM
AD  - Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, Tromso N-9296, Norway.
FAU - Lydersen, Christian
AU  - Lydersen C
AD  - Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, Tromso N-9296, Norway.
FAU - Routti, Heli
AU  - Routti H
AD  - Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, Tromso N-9296, Norway. Electronic 
      address: heli.routti@npolar.no.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20200214
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Sci Total Environ
JT  - The Science of the total environment
JID - 0330500
RN  - 0 (Environmental Pollutants)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Environmental Pollutants/*analysis
MH  - Female
MH  - Male
MH  - Svalbard
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Arctic
OT  - Blue whale
OT  - Contaminant
OT  - Fin whale
OT  - Stable isotope
OT  - Svalbard
COIS- 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.
EDAT- 2020/02/26 06:00
MHDA- 2020/06/04 06:00
CRDT- 2020/02/26 06:00
PHST- 2019/11/14 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2020/02/12 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2020/02/13 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2020/02/26 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2020/06/04 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2020/02/26 06:00 [entrez]
AID - S0048-9697(20)30837-8 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137327 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Sci Total Environ. 2020 May 20;718:137327. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137327. 
      Epub 2020 Feb 14.