title: Can starling eggs be useful as a biomonitoring tool to study organohalogenated contaminants on a worldwide scale?
abstract: Large-scale international monitoring studies are important to assess emission patterns and environmental distributions of organohalogenated contaminants (OHCs) on a worldwide scale. In this study, the presence of OHCs was investigated on three continents (Europe, North America and Australasia), using eggs of starlings (Sturnus vulgaris and Sturnus unicolor) to assess their suitability for large-scale monitoring studies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study using bird eggs of the same species as a biomonitor for OHCs on an intercontinental scale. We found significant differences in OHC concentrations of the eggs among sampling locations, except for hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs). Mean concentrations of sum polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in eggs ranged from 78±26 ng/glipid weight (lw) in Australia to 2900±1300 ng/g lw in the United States. The PCB profile was dominated by CB 153 and CB 138 in all locations, except for New Zealand, where the contribution of CB 95, CB 101 and CB 149 was also high. The highest mean sum polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) concentrations were found in Canada (4400±830 ng/g lw), while the lowest mean PBDE concentrations were measured in Spain (3.7±0.1 ng/g lw). The PBDE profile in starling eggs was dominated by BDE 47 and BDE 99 in all countries, but in Belgium, the higher brominated PBDEs had a higher contribution compared to other countries. For the organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) ranged from 110±16 ng/g lw in France to 17,000±3400 ng/g lw in New Zealand, while HCHs and hexachlorobenzene were generally in low concentrations in all sampling locations. Chlordanes were remarkably high in eggs from the United States (2500±1300 ng/g lw). The OCP profile in all countries was largely dominated by p,p'-DDE. In general, the worldwide trends we observed in starling eggs were in accordance with the literature on human and environmental OHC data, which suggests that there is potential for using starling eggs as a biomonitoring tool on a large geographical scale.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Ethology, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium. marcel.eens@ua.ac.be
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eens
authors.forename: Veerle L B
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Jaspers
authors.forename: Evi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Van den Steen
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bateson
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Carere
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Clergeau
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Costantini
authors.forename: Zdravko
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dolenec
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Flux
authors.forename: Helga
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gwinner
authors.forename: Richard S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Halbrook
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Heeb
authors.forename: Tomasz D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Mazgajski
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moksnes
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Polo
authors.forename: Juan José
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Soler
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sinclair
authors.forename: José P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Veiga
authors.forename: Tony D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Covaci
authors.forename: Rianne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pinxten
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism*; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / Q000378:metabolism; D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated / Q000378:metabolism*; D010063:Ovum / Q000378:metabolism*; D010575:Pesticides / Q000378:metabolism; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000378:metabolism; D046749:Starlings
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers; D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated; D010575:Pesticides; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls