The distribution and biomagnification of higher brominated BDEs in terrestrial organisms affected by a typical e-waste burning site in South China

Abstract

Soil, vegetation, and several terrestrial species including turtledove, chicken, goose, grasshopper, dragonfly, butterfly and ant, were collected from an area surrounding a typical e-waste burning site in South China. The samples were examined to investigate the levels, congener profiles, and biomagnification extent of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) that may be present in the environment as a result of the e-waste, which was processed in a crude recycling style. Elevated levels of Σ21PBDEs were found in the biota (101–4725ngg−1 lipid weight (lw)), vegetation leaf (82.9–319ngg−1 dry weight (dw)) and soil samples (5.2–22110ngg−1 dw), indicating that PBDE contamination in the samples collected from the e-waste burning site may pose risks to the local terrestrial ecosystem and local populations. Higher BDE congeners, especially deca-BDE (BDE-209) were the dominant homologs in organisms and nonbiological matrices, followed by nona-BDE and octa-BDE. Biomagnification factors (BMFs) were calculated as the ratio of the lipid-normalized concentration in the predator to that in the prey. The highest BMF (3.4) was determined for BDE-153 in the grasshopper/turtledove food chain. Other higher brominated congeners, such as BDE-202, -203, -154, -183 and -209, were also biomagnified in the terrestrial food chain with BMFs of 1.7–3.3. BDE-47, -100, and -99 were not biomagnified in the examined food chains (BMFs<1), which suggests that bioaccumulation and biotransformation of PBDEs in terrestrial ecosystems could be distinguished from those in aquatic ecosystems.