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Varying Diet Composition Causes Striking Differences in Legacy and Emerging Contaminant Concentrations in Killer Whales across the North Atlantic

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Occurrence, Fate, and Transport of Aquatic and Terrestrial Contaminants

Varying Diet Composition Causes Striking Differences in Legacy and Emerging Contaminant Concentrations in Killer Whales across the North Atlantic
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  • Anaïs Remili*
    Anaïs Remili
    Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec H9X 3V9, Canada
    *Email: [email protected]
    More by Anaïs Remili
    Orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5801-4670
  • Rune Dietz
    Rune Dietz
    Department of Ecoscience, Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, 900 Vestmannaeyjar, Denmark
    More by Rune Dietz
  • Christian Sonne
    Christian Sonne
    Department of Ecoscience, Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, 900 Vestmannaeyjar, Denmark
    More by Christian Sonne
  • Filipa I. P. Samarra
    Filipa I. P. Samarra
    University of Iceland, 900 Vestmannaeyjar, Reykjavík 600169-2039, Iceland
    More by Filipa I. P. Samarra
  • Robert J. Letcher
    Robert J. Letcher
    Ecotoxicology and Wildlife Health Division, Wildlife and Landscape Science Directorate, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H3, Canada
    More by Robert J. Letcher
  • Audun H. Rikardsen
    Audun H. Rikardsen
    Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway
    Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), N-9296 Tromso, Norway
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  • Steven H. Ferguson
    Steven H. Ferguson
    Arctic Aquatic Research Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N6, Canada
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  • Cortney A. Watt
    Cortney A. Watt
    Arctic Aquatic Research Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N6, Canada
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  • Cory J. D. Matthews
    Cory J. D. Matthews
    Arctic Aquatic Research Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N6, Canada
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  • Jeremy J. Kiszka
    Jeremy J. Kiszka
    Institute of Environment, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, North Miami, Florida 33181, United States
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  • Aqqalu Rosing-Asvid
    Aqqalu Rosing-Asvid
    Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, GR-3900 Nuuk, Greenland
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  • Melissa A. McKinney*
    Melissa A. McKinney
    Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec H9X 3V9, Canada
    *Email: [email protected]
    More by Melissa A. McKinney
    Orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8171-7534
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Environmental Science & Technology

Cite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, 57, 42, 16109–16120
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https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c05516
Published October 11, 2023
Copyright © 2023 American Chemical Society
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Abstract

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Lipophilic persistent organic pollutants (POPs) tend to biomagnify in food chains, resulting in higher concentrations in species such as killer whales (Orcinus orca) feeding on marine mammals compared to those consuming fish. Advancements in dietary studies include the use of quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) and differentiation of feeding habits within and between populations of North Atlantic (NA) killer whales. This comprehensive study assessed the concentrations of legacy and emerging POPs in 162 killer whales from across the NA. We report significantly higher mean levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides, and flame retardants in Western NA killer whales compared to those of Eastern NA conspecifics. Mean ∑PCBs ranged from ∼100 mg/kg lipid weight (lw) in the Western NA (Canadian Arctic, Eastern Canada) to ∼50 mg/kg lw in the mid-NA (Greenland, Iceland) to ∼10 mg/kg lw in the Eastern NA (Norway, Faroe Islands). The observed variations in contaminant levels were strongly correlated with diet composition across locations (inferred from QFASA), emphasizing that diet and not environmental variation in contaminant concentrations among locations is crucial in assessing contaminant-associated health risks in killer whales. These findings highlight the urgency for implementing enhanced measures to safely dispose of POP-contaminated waste, prevent further environmental contamination, and mitigate the release of newer and potentially harmful contaminants.

Copyright © 2023 American Chemical Society

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Supporting Information

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The Supporting Information is available free of charge at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c05516.

  • The tables provide details on sample collection dates and locations (Table S1), laboratory analyses for POPs (Table S2), detection percentages of PCBs and OC compounds (Table S3), detection percentages of PBDEs and non-BDE flame retardants (Table S4), concentrations of legacy contaminant classes and emerging flame retardants (Table S5), mean values for flame-retardant and PCB compounds (Tables S6 and S7), diet estimates from fatty acid analysis (Table S9), model selection and coefficients related to contaminant classes (Tables S10 and S11), risk quotients for PCBs including contextual details about individuals (Table S12); corresponding figures illustrate principal component analyses for flame retardants (Figure S1), PCBs (Figure S2), and organochlorine pesticides (Figure S3) highlighting overlaps between diet types and locations, concentration differences in flame retardants between fish-feeding and marine-mammal-feeding killer whales (Figure S4), and individual risk quotient estimates for PCBs, divided by location and sex (Figure S5) (PDF)

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This article is cited by 9 publications.

  1. Clare Andvik, Eve Jourdain, Anders Borgen, Jan Ludvig Lyche, Richard Karoliussen, Tore Haug, Katrine Borgå. Intercorrelations of Chlorinated Paraffins, Dechloranes, and Legacy Persistent Organic Pollutants in 10 Species of Marine Mammals from Norway, in Light of Dietary Niche. Environmental Science & Technology 2024, 58 (33) , 14797-14811. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c02625
  2. Bo Yuan, Robert J. Letcher. Evolving Accumulation of a Complex Profile of Polychlorinated Alkanes in Canadian Polar Bears. Environmental Science & Technology Letters 2024, 11 (6) , 591-597. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00152
  3. Sadia L. Alfee, Michelle C. Bloor. A global review of river sediment contamination and remobilization through climate change-induced flooding. Sustainable Environment 2025, 11 (1) https://doi.org/10.1080/27658511.2024.2440957
  4. Derek C.G. Muir, Aaron T. Fisk, Olga A. Filatova, Ken Drouillard, Nargis Ismail, Olga Shpak, Ivan Fedutin. Distinctive patterns and low concentrations of persistent organic pollutants in Northwestern Pacific killer whales (Orcinus orca). Marine Pollution Bulletin 2025, 216 , 117927. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.117927
  5. Sarah J. Dolman, Nicola K. Hodgins, Fernando Ugarte. A review of small cetacean hunts in Greenland. Marine Policy 2024, 170 , 106401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2024.106401
  6. Anaïs Remili, Melissa A. McKinney, Ambar Maldonado-Rodriguez, Steven H. Ferguson, Michelle Caputo, Jeremy J. Kiszka. Legacy persistent organic pollutants among multiple cetacean species in the Northwest Atlantic. Science of The Total Environment 2024, 954 , 176746. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176746
  7. Qiang Xie, Xiyang Zhang, Yuping Wu. Space-use strategy drives fine-scale spatial variation of chlorinated paraffins in indo-pacific humpback dolphins. Environmental Pollution 2024, 359 , 124559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124559
  8. Amy M. Van Cise, M. Bradley Hanson, Candice Emmons, Dan Olsen, Craig O. Matkin, Abigail H. Wells, Kim M. Parsons. Spatial and seasonal foraging patterns drive diet differences among north Pacific resident killer whale populations. Royal Society Open Science 2024, 11 (9) https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240445
  9. Jean-Pierre Desforges, Steven H. Ferguson, Anaïs Remili, Melissa A. McKinney, Cortney A. Watt, Cory J.D. Matthews. Assessment of persistent organic pollutants in killer whales (Orcinus orca) of the Canadian Arctic: Implications for subsistence consumption and conservation strategies. Environmental Research 2024, 244 , 117992. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2023.117992
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Environmental Science & Technology

Cite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, 57, 42, 16109–16120
Click to copy citationCitation copied!
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c05516
Published October 11, 2023
Copyright © 2023 American Chemical Society
Request reuse permissions

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