Science of The Total Environment, Volumes 524–525, 15 August 2015, Pages 157–165
Abstract
As urban sprawl and agricultural intensification continue t o invade prime wildlife habitat, some animals, even apex predators, are managing to adapt to this new environment. Chemical pollution is one of many stressors that wildlife encounter in urban environments. Predators are particularly sensitive to persistent chemical pollutants because they feed at a high trophic level where such pollution is biomagnified. To examine levels of pollution in urban birds of prey in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, we analyzed persistent organic contaminants in adult birds found dead of trauma injury. The hepatic geometric mean concentration of sum polybrominated diphenyl ethers (ΣPBDEs) in 13 Cooper's hawks (Accipiter cooperii) from Greater Vancouver was 1873 ng/g (lipid weight) with one bird reaching 197,000 ng/g lipid weight, the highest exposure reported to date for a wild bird. Concentrations of ΣPBDEs, ΣPCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and surprisingly, cyclodiene insecticides were greatest in the urban environment while those of DDE (1,1-dichloroethylene bis[p-chlorophenyl) were highest in a region of intensive agriculture. The le vel of mo st ch lorinated an d bromi nated contaminants increased with trophic level (δ15N). The concentrations of some contaminants, PBDEs in particular, in these birds of prey may have some toxicological consequences. Apex predators in urban environments cont inue to be exposed t o elevated concentrations of legacy pollutants as well as more recent brominated pollutants.
Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969715004441