Trophic Transfer of Methyl Siloxanes in the Marine Food Web from Coastal Area of Northern China

Abstract

Methyl siloxanes, which belong to organic silicon compounds and have linear and cyclic structures, are of particular concern because of their potential characteristic of persistent, bioaccumulated, toxic, and ecological harm. This study investigated the trophic transfer of four cyclic methyl siloxanes (octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D6), and tetradecamethylcycloheptasiloxane (D7)) in a marine food web from coastal area of Northern China. Trophic magnification of D4, D5, D6, and D7 were assessed as the slope of lipid equivalent concentrations regressed against trophic levels of marine food web configurations. A significant positive correlation (R = 0.44, p < 0.0001) was found between lipid normalized D5 concentrations and trophic levels in organisms, showing the trophic magnification potential of this chemical in the marine food web. The trophic magnification factor (TMF) of D5 was estimated to be 1.77 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.41-2.24, 99.8% probability of the observing TMF > 1). Such a significant link, however, was not found for D4 (R = 0.14 and p = 0.16), D6 (R = 0.01 and p = 0.92), and D7 (R = -0.15 and p = 0.12); and the estimated values of TMFs (95% CI, probability of the observing TMF > 1) were 1.16 (0.94-1.44, 94.7%), 1.01 (0.84-1.22, 66.9%) and 0.85 (0.69-1.04, 48.6%) for D4, D6, and D7, respectively. The TMF value for the legacy contaminant BDE-99 was also estimated as a benchmark, and a significant positive correlation (R = 0.65, p < 0.0001) was found between lipid normalized concentrations and trophic levels in organisms. The TMF value of BDE-99 was 3.27 (95% CI: 2.49-4.30, 99.7% probability of the observing TMF > 1), showing the strong magnification in marine food webs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the trophic magnification of methyl siloxanes in China, which provided important information for trophic transformation of these compounds in marine food webs.