Seasonal variation in the composition and concentration of butyltin compounds in marine fish of Taiwan

Abstract

For the first time, strong evidence is presented to demonstrate that the accumulations of butyltin compounds (BTs) exhibit seasonal variations with respect to their compositions and concentrations in marine fishes. Measurements were made on the benthic ponyfish Leiogenathus splendens and lizardfish Trachinocephalus myops inhabiting the west coast of Taiwan. In the whole body samples of the ponyfish, BT concentrations ranged from 236 to 2501 ng/g wet wt, with those in winter considerably higher than in the other seasons ( p<0.05). In a similar vein, proportions of mono- (MBT), di- (DBT) and tributyltin (TBT) differed significantly ( p<0.001) depending upon the season, with TBT (75 and 50%) dominant in winter and spring and DBT (37 and 57%) and MBT (42 and 24%) dominant in summer and autumn, respectively. In the lizardfish, the concentrations of BTs were one to two orders of magnitude higher in the liver than in the muscle, i.e. 3058–11,473 vs. 36–159 ng/g wet wt, respectively. Concentrations of MBT, DBT and TBT in the muscle ranged, respectively, from 5 to 14, 8 to 35 and 23 to 110 ng/g wet wt, with the major compound being TBT (57–69%) in all seasons. However, in the liver, DBT concentrations, ranging from 992 to 7797 ng/g wet wt, differed seasonally with a descending order of autumn > summer > spring ( p<0.05). Meanwhile, TBT (41%) was predominant in spring, whereas DBT (50 and 68%) was most heavily concentrated in summer and autumn ( p<0.001). Seasonally mediated physiological changes, such as dilution due to growth and metabolic compensation, may play important roles in forming different BT accumulation patterns among seasons and organisms.