Marine sponge: a potential source for methoxylated polybrominated diphenyl ethers in the Asia-Pacific food web.
Marine sponges collected in Palau, Micronesia, were investigated for hydroxylated or methoxylated analogues of brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), brominated dibenzo-p-dioxin (BDD), and brominated biphenyls. The neutral fractions of Haliclona sp. and Callyspongia sp. contained 2'-methoxy-2,3',4,5'-tetraBDE, 6-methoxy-2,2',4,4'-tetraBDE, 2',6-dimethoxy-2,3',4,5-tetraBDE 2,2'-dimethoxy-3,3',5,5'-tetrabromobiphenyl, several methoxy-triBDEs, and dimethoxy-penta-/hexaBDEs. The methoxylated BDEs in sponges were strikingly similar to those of local fish living in the western Pacific Ocean. The total concentrations of these compounds (ΣMeO-PBDE) in both sponges were 63.5 μg/g extractable organic matter (EOM) for Haliclona sp. and 36.5 μg/g EOM for Callyspongia sp., which were about 2 orders of magnitude higher than the levels seen in tropical coral reef fish (unicornfish or surgeonfish) (280-290 ng/g lipid) and groupers (550 ng/g lipid) from Okinawan coastal waters. The phenolic fractions of both sponges contained hydroxy-methoxy tetra-/pentaBDEs as well as hydroxy-tetraBDD, in addition to the corresponding phenolic tetraBDE analogues. Although the total concentrations of phenolic products (27-80 μg/g EOM) in both sponges fell within a range comparable to the methoxylated products, ΣOH-PBDE in local fish were trace level (less than 10 ng/g lipid of) or undetectable. This survey indicates that marine sponges are a possible source of the MeO-PBDE analogues that biomagnify via the food chain to the higher trophic organisms in the western Pacific, whereas the distribution of the corresponding hydroxylated analogues is limited.
Daiichi College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuoka 815-8511, Japan. k-haraguti@daiichi-cps.ac.jp
Koichi
K
Haraguchi
Yoshihisa
Y
Kato
Chiho
C
Ohta
Nobuyuki
N
Koga
Tetsuya
T
Endo
D000818:Animals; D005399:Fishes; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D008745:Methylation; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D019029:Palau; D011161:Porifera / Q000737:chemistry*
D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers