10 year trend of levels of organochlorine pollutants in Antarctic seabirds

Brief description

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2357 See the link below for public details on this project.

---- Public Summary from Project ----
Contaminants like PCBs and DDE have hardly been used Antarctica. Hence, this is an excellent place to monitor global background levels of these organochlorines. In this project concentrations in penguins and petrels will be compared to 10 years ago, which will show time trends of global background contamination levels.

Data set description
From several birds from Hop Island, Rauer Islands near Davis, samples were collected from preenoil (oil that birds excrete to preen their feathers. This preenoil was then analysed for organochlorine pollutants like polychlorinated biphenyls, (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), DDE and dieldrin. The species under investigation were the Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) and the Southern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialoides). The samples were collected from adult breeding birds, and stored in -20 degrees C as soon as possible. The analysis was done with relatively standard but very optimised methods, using a gas-chromatograph and mass-selective detection.

Data sheets:
The data are available in excel-sheets, located at Alterra, The Netherlands (the affiliation of the PI Nico van den Brink.). Data are available on PCB153 (polychlorinated biphenyl congener numbered 153), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), DDE (a metabolite of the pesticide DDT), and dieldrin (an insecticide).

The metadata are in 4 sheets (in meta data 2357.xls):
1. 'Concentrations fulmars'
2. 'Morphometric data fulmars'
3. 'Concentrations Adelies'
4. 'Morphometric data Adelies'

The column headings are:

1. 'Concentrations fulmars'

- Fulmar: bird number, corresponds with sheet 'morphometric data fulmars'.
- PCB153: concentration of PCB-congener 153 (ng/g lipids)
- HCB: concentration of hexachlorobenzene (ng/g lipids)
- DDE: concentration of DDE (ng/g lipids)
- Dieldrin: concentration of dieldrin (ng/g lipids)
- Sample size weight of collected amount of preenoil

2. Morphometric data fulmars

- Fulmar: bird number, corresponds with sheet 'Concentrations fulmars'.
- Bill Length (mm): length of bill (tip to base)
- Head Length (mm): length of head (tip of bill to back of head)
- Tarsus (mm): length of tarsus
- Wing Length (cm): length of right wing
- Weight (kg): weight of bird (without bag)

3. 'Concentrations Adelies'

Adelie: bird number, corresponds with sheet 'morphometric data Adelies'.
- PCB153: concentration of PCB-congener 153 (ng/g lipids)
- HCB: concentration of hexachlorobenzene (ng/g lipids)
- DDE: concentration of DDE (ng/g lipids)
- Dieldrin: concentration of dieldrin (ng/g lipids)
- Sample size weight of collected amount of preenoil

4. 'Morphometric data Adelies'

- Adelie: bird number, corresponds with sheet 'Concentrations Adelies'.
- Bill (mm): length of bill (tip to base)
- Head Length (mm): length of head (tip of bill to back of head)
- Tarsus (mm): length of tarsus
- Flipper Length (cm): length of right flipper (wing)
- Weight (kg): weight of bird (without bag)

In sheets on concentrations: less than d.l.: concentrations below detection limits.

Lineage

Progress Code: completed

Statement: The concentrations were very low. Only for PCB153 several observations could be detected above detection limits. For other congeners most observations were below detection limits. Generally the samples of the Adelie penguins were smaller.

2018-08-29 - The original files was reformatted to fit OBIS/GBFI/IPT Biodiversity.AQ tracking standards, and a new datasheet "PollutantsInSeabirds_2003_04.csv" was created. The new dataset contains datasetID, occurrenceID, recordNumber, locationID, lifeStage, locality, verbatimLatitude, verbatimLongitude, decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, eventDate, year, month, day, samplingProtocol, institutionCode, country, countryCode, measurementType, measurementUnit, measurementValue, dynamicProperties, occurrenceStatus, occurrenceRemarks, basisOfRecord, and associatedReferences. The lowest taxonomical rank of the species identified that could be determined is provided, after matched in WoRMS (World Register of Marine Species).