2. ENVIRONMENTAL ChEMISTRy & TEChNOLOGy 2.1. Lectures

Chem. Listy, 102, s265–s1311 (2008) Environmental Chemistry & Technology
L09 TISSuE-SPECIFIC DISTRIbuTION AND
ACCuMuLATION OF ORGANOChLORINE
POLLuTANTS IN SELECTED RAPTOR
SPECIES FROM ThE CZECh REPubLIC
RADIM LánA a , MILADA VáVROVá a,b , VLADIMíR
VEČEřEK b and STAnISLAV KRáČMAR c
a ICTEP, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology,
Purkyňova 118, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic,
b University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Science Brno,
Palackého 1–3, 612 42 Brno, Czech Republic,
c Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno,
Zemědělská 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic,
lana@fch.vutbr.cz
Introduction
Organochlorine compounds such as polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) or organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are
known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Despite the
ban on production or restrictions on use many years ago the
POPs still continue to be found in various samples from the
environment and accumulate through the food chains. For
their top position within the food chain and the sensitivity
to environmental changes birds of prey are very suitable bioaccumulation
markers. The amount of pollutants accumulating
in the raptors’ tissues is related not only to their diet and
corresponding trophic position, but also to the differences in
accumulation among habitats and ecosystems (aquatic vs.
terrestrial) 1 . Moreover, sensitivity also varies greatly between
compound and species 2 .
However, it is difficult to use birds for the assessment
of pollutant transfers within the food web, except for those
species partly associated with the aquatic habitats where the
transfer can be documented in some measure. For instance
the cormorant or heron are fish feeders and top predators in
aquatic ecosystems, have relatively high levels of POPs in the
adipose tissue, and hence are suitable bioindication species 3 .
Because practical and ethical reasons, low numbers and
often legal protection inhibit the sacrifice of free-living animals,
methods for non-destructive biomonitoring have been
developed. Whereas many studies have previously focused
on the use of eggs or hair, feathers, on the other hand, have an
advantage that they can be collected irrespective of season,
age or sex 4 . Another simple approach consists in the use of
specimens found dead.
In the Czech Republic, the levels of PCBs in unhatched
eggs from raptors were monitored. no intra- or interspecies
differences were found and the findings corresponded to
those from Germany, Canda or the USA, where the CB 153
was the most abundant congener 5 .
This study deals with the levels of organochlorine pollutants
in various tissues of raptor species from the Czech
Republic and compares the results with those from foreign
surveys.
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Experimental
The sampling area as well as the raptor and fish species
and their detailed description have already been published 6 .
Selected tissue samples of investigated specimens were
homogenized and dessicated by activated anhydrous sodium
sulphate. Two different extraction techniques were employed
for the isolation of lipids from the tissues. The samples of
muscles, kidneys and liver were extracted by petrolether
(SupraSolv, Merck) by means of accelerated solvent extraction
(140 °C, 12 MPa, 3 × 5 min static extraction + n 2 purge).
The samples of brain, skin, feathers and intestinal content
were extracted by petrolether:acetone (1 : 1, v/v) for 6 h in
a Soxtec apparatus. The removal of lipids from raw extracts
was carried out on an adsorption column packed with Florisil
(5 g; 60/100 mesh, Sigma-Aldrich, activated at 600 °C for
6 h). The samples were then eluted with 90 ml of n-hexane:
diethylethere (94 : 6, v/v), evaporated to dryness using a
rotary evaporator, and dissolved in 1 ml of n-hexane.
The quanification of target analytes was carried out
by HP 6890n high resolution gas chromatograph with two
micro-electron capture detectors (63 ni m-ECD) and two
capillary columns (HT-8 and DB-17ms) operated in parallel
(H 2 as the carrier gas). nine-point calibration curves in a
linear range from 0.5 to 1,000 ng ml –1 were used and the limit
of quantification (LOQ) for all analytes was calculated as
2.5 ng g –1 of lipids (i.e. about 0.13 ng g –1 d.w. for 4% lipid
content in a tissue).
Results
The levels of organochlorine pollutants found in the
muscle tissue of cormorants from the Záhlinice area (2007)
Fig. 1. Organochlorine pollutants in muscle tissue of common
cormorant from the Záhlinice area (n = 8). Horizontal lines represent
median, rectangles delimit the 1 st and 3 rd quartiles, and
error bars represent the min/max values. Outlying values are
marked as “+” (2007).