Levels and profiles of persistent organic pollutants in resident and migratory birds from an urbanized coastal region of South Korea

Abstract

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) levels in resident and migratory birds collected from an urbanized coastal region of South Korea were investigated. As target species, resident birds that reside in different habitats—such as inland and coastal regions—were selected and their POP contamination status and accumulation features evaluated. Additionally, winter and summer migratory species were analysed for comparison with resident birds. Black-tailed gull and domestic pigeon were selected as the coastal and inland resident birds, respectively, and pacific loon and heron/egret were selected as the winter and summer migratory birds, respectively. The overall POP concentrations (unit: ng/g lipid) in resident birds were 14–131,000 (median: 13,400) for PCBs, 40–284,000 (11,200) for DDTs, <1.0–2850 (275) for CHLs, 23–2020 (406) for HCHs, 2–1520 (261) for HCB, <0.2–48 (5) for pentachlorobenzene (PeCB), 71–7120 (1840) for PBDEs, and <1.8–2300 (408) for HBCDs. In resident birds, the overall level of POPs was higher in seagull compared to pigeon. The stable isotope ratio of nitrogen and carbon indicates that seagull occupies a higher trophic position in the environment than pigeon. However, the POP accumulation profiles in these species differed. Pigeon tends to accumulate more recently used POPs such as PBDEs than seagull. The high-brominated BDE congeners, γ-HBCDs and γ-HCH (also called lindane) were enriched in pigeon compared to seagull, implying the widespread use of Deca-BDE, technical HBCDs, and lindane in the terrestrial environment of South Korea. The different accumulation profile of POPs in both resident species would be related to their habitat difference and trophic positions. For urban resident bird such as pigeon, an intentional intake of dust or soils during feeding is likely to be an additional route of exposure to POPs. Resident birds generally accumulated higher POPs concentrations than migratory birds, the exceptions being relatively volatile compounds such as HCB, PeCB and HCHs.