title: Tracking pan-continental trends in environmental contamination using sentinel raptors-what types of samples should we use?
abstract: Biomonitoring using birds of prey as sentinel species has been mooted as a way to evaluate the success of European Union directives that are designed to protect people and the environment across Europe from industrial contaminants and pesticides. No such pan-European evaluation currently exists. Coordination of such large scale monitoring would require harmonisation across multiple countries of the types of samples collected and analysed-matrices vary in the ease with which they can be collected and the information they provide. We report the first ever pan-European assessment of which raptor samples are collected across Europe and review their suitability for biomonitoring. Currently, some 182 monitoring programmes across 33 European countries collect a variety of raptor samples, and we discuss the relative merits of each for monitoring current priority and emerging compounds. Of the matrices collected, blood and liver are used most extensively for quantifying trends in recent and longer-term contaminant exposure, respectively. These matrices are potentially the most effective for pan-European biomonitoring but are not so widely and frequently collected as others. We found that failed eggs and feathers are the most widely collected samples. Because of this ubiquity, they may provide the best opportunities for widescale biomonitoring, although neither is suitable for all compounds. We advocate piloting pan-European monitoring of selected priority compounds using these matrices and developing read-across approaches to accommodate any effects that trophic pathway and species differences in accumulation may have on our ability to track environmental trends in contaminants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100, Murcia, Spain. sieslu@utu.fi.|Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland. sieslu@utu.fi.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Espín
authors.affiliation: Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: García-Fernández
authors.affiliation: FRAM-High North Research Centre for Climate and the Environment, Norwegian Institute for Air Research, 9296, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Herzke
authors.affiliation: NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4AP, UK.
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Shore
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University, De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|Deltares, Marine and Coastal Systems, P.O. Box 177, 2600 MH, Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van Hattum
authors.affiliation: Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martínez-López
authors.affiliation: Chrono-Environnement, UMR 6249 University Bourgogne Franche-Comté/CNRS Usc INRA, 16 Route de Gray, 25030, Besançon Cedex, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coeurdassier
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium.|Department of Bioscience, Artic Research Centre (ARC), Århus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, PO Box 358, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Eulaers
authors.affiliation: Chrono-Environnement, UMR 6249 University Bourgogne Franche-Comté/CNRS Usc INRA, 16 Route de Gray, 25030, Besançon Cedex, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fritsch
authors.affiliation: Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gómez-Ramírez
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium.|Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, EU2-169, Høgskoleringen 5, 7491, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: V L B
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Jaspers
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Strasse 17, 10315, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Krone
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Environment, Oxford University Environmental Change Institute, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Duke
authors.affiliation: Environmental Research & Monitoring, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-104 05, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Helander
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos-IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo s/n, 13071, Ciudad Real, Spain.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mateo
authors.affiliation: Department of Collections, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Movalli
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioscience, Artic Research Centre (ARC), Århus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, PO Box 358, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sonne
authors.affiliation: Division of Toxicology, Wageningen University, PO Box 8000, NL-6700EA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: N W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: van den Brink
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism*; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe; D005062:European Union; D005241:Feathers; D020304:Raptors / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants
keywords: Bird of prey; Contaminant; Matrix; Monitoring; Sample type