School of Marine Sciences, Zhuhai Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresources and Environment, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, Pearl River Estuary Marine Ecosystem Research Station, Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519082, China.
Department of Biology, Center for Environment, Biodiversity and Conservation, The University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, Texas 75799, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Apr 19;56(8):5037-5048. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c08636. Epub 2022 Apr 8.
Increasing human activities are altering marine ecosystems, which may have ramifications for predator feeding ecology and, thus, the degree of contaminant exposure. We conducted the first investigation of spatiotemporal trends for nine alternative halogenated flame retardants (AHFRs) and their relations with dietary variations in 128 humpback dolphins that were stranded along the northern South China Sea during 2003-2020. We detected the highest levels of seven major AHFRs in humpback dolphins compared with the results reported in cetaceans globally, indicating high AHFR contamination in coastal regions of South China. Dolphins that were stranded near urban regions generally contained higher AHFR concentrations than those that were stranded near rural areas, mirroring the environmental trends of AHFRs occurring in this area. Model-generated diet estimates suggested that humpback dolphins have reduced their consumption of high trophic-level prey in recent years, likely attributable to overfishing-induced prey decline in this region. After adjusting AHFR concentrations due to diet changes, the temporal trends of AHFR contamination in humpback dolphins were only slightly altered. Our results suggest that increasing discharges of AHFRs into the South China Sea during the 2000s and 2010s may have had a greater influence on AHFR trends in humpback dolphins than dietary shifts.
人类活动的增加正在改变海洋生态系统，这可能对捕食者的摄食生态产生影响，从而影响污染物暴露的程度。我们首次调查了 2003 年至 2020 年期间在南海北部搁浅的 128 头座头鲸中 9 种替代卤代阻燃剂 (AHFR) 的时空变化趋势及其与饮食变化的关系。与全球鲸类动物的报告结果相比，我们在座头鲸中检测到了七种主要 AHFR 的最高水平，这表明华南沿海地区存在高浓度的 AHFR 污染。在城市地区附近搁浅的海豚通常比在农村地区附近搁浅的海豚含有更高浓度的 AHFR，这反映了该地区 AHFR 环境趋势。模型生成的饮食估计表明，近年来座头鲸减少了对高营养级猎物的消耗，这可能归因于该地区过度捕捞导致的猎物减少。在根据饮食变化调整 AHFR 浓度后，座头鲸中 AHFR 污染的时间趋势仅略有改变。我们的研究结果表明，在 21 世纪 00 年代和 10 年代，AHFR 排入南海的增加对座头鲸中 AHFR 趋势的影响可能大于饮食变化。
