title: Geographical distribution and risk assessment of persistent organic pollutants in golden threads (Nemipterus virgatus) from the northern South China Sea.
abstract: Fish are often used as good bioindicators to monitor the occurrence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) on different scales in recent years. Forty-five golden threads (Nemipterus virgatus) were collected from six sampling sites in the northern South China Sea (SCS) to investigate the geographical distribution of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its metabolites (DDTs). Concentrations of PBDEs, PCBs, and DDTs ranged from 1.3-36.0, 2.3-76.5, 8.3-228 ng/g lipid weight, respectively. The highest PBDEs and DDTs concentrations were found in golden threads from Shantou, owing to the intensive electronic waste recycling activities and rapid development of agriculture. Samples from Haikou had the highest levels of PCBs, probably due to the existence of many shipbuilding yards in the past years. The concentrations of PBDEs and PCBs were found in a decreasing trend from east to west and from north to south, while DDTs concentrations had no obvious trend in the distribution. PCBs were the most prevalent contaminants in Xiamen and Yangjiang, while DDTs were the dominant compounds at the other four sampling sites. Different profiles of POPs at each sampling site may attribute to different pollution sources in the northern SCS. Ratios of (DDD + DDE)/DDTs in golden threads suggested the probability of fresh input of DDT in the northern SCS. The estimated daily intakes of PBDEs, PCBs and DDTs were 0.030-0.069, 0.167-0.258 and 0.105-1.88 ng/kg/day, respectively, which were significantly lower than the acceptable daily intake, suggesting that consumption of golden threads from the northern SCS would not subject the residents in the coastal areas of SCS to significant health risk.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China.|Marine Fisheries Research Institute of Zhejiang, Zhejiang, 316021, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Xin
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China. xuxr@scsio.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Xiang-Rong
authors.initials: XR
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, 116023, China.
authors.forename: Zi-Wei
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China.
authors.forename: You-Shao
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China.
authors.forename: Zai-Wang
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
authors.forename: Bi-Xian
authors.initials: BX
authors.lastname: Mai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D003634:DDT / Q000032:analysis; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D010473:Perciformes / Q000378:metabolism*; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017747:Seafood / Q000032:analysis*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D055768:Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D003634:DDT; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls
keywords: Geographical distribution; Golden thread; Persistent organic pollutants; The northern South China Sea