Toxic Contaminants in Puget Sound’s Pelagic Food Web ! James E. West Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Sandra M. O’Neill, Gina M. Ylitalo, NOAA Fisheries, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, WA Exposure to toxics is a risk to the health of Pacific herring throughout their life cycle • Persistent bioaccumulative toxics (PBTs) in adult herring! • Using PCBs as an example • Trophic transfer of PCBs in the PS pelagic FW as source of risk • Hydrocarbons in spawned herring eggs! • Compare PAHs in embryos across PS • Source of PAHs to embryos? 200
150 200 100 150 50 100 200 0 50 Q. 150Charlottes 0 100 Northern PS 50
200 0
150 BC Central 200 100 150 50 100 0 50 Vancouver200 Is. 0 150 Central PS 100
50 Puget Sound is a
0 Regional Hot Spot 200 200 WA Coast of PCBs (ng/g wet 150 150 wt) in the Pelagic 100 100 Food web 50 50 0 0 (Pacific herring) South PS San Francisco Simplified pathway for PCBs entering and biomagnifying in the pelagic food web
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer “The Zone” [email protected] Groups I’ll cover today for the trophic transfer story….
Primary producer Phytoplankton (POM)
Primary consumer Krill (Euphausia pacifica)
“resident” predators Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) Walleye pollock (Theragra chaclogramma) Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) Compare trophic transfer of PCBs between two Basins 18 Trophic levels of pelagic species in Central Puget Sound 16 TL=4
14 )
00 TL=3 /
0 12 N ( 15
δ 10 TL=2
8
6 TL=1
POM herring hake (sm) hake (lg) E. pacificapollock (sm)
resident adult Chinook resident subadult Chinook Central Puget Sound 6000 POM krill 5000 small pollock small hake herring 4000 large hake
3000
2000 PCBs (ng/g PCBs lipid) 1000
0
6 8 10 12 14 16
15 0 d N ( /00) krill Central Puget Sound 6000 small pollock small hake 5000 herring large hake
4000
3000 Meador 2002 deleterious effects threshold
2000 Hood Canal PCBs (ng/g lipid) 1000
0
8 10 12 14 16
15 0 d N ( /00) PCB levels are not changing (much) in Puget Sound herring
350
Cherry Point 300 Squaxin Port Orchard 250 Semiahmoo
200
150
100 PCBs ng/g wet wt. ng/g wet PCBs
50
0 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 Conclusions (PBTs) • Basin-specific magnifica on pa erns • Trophic transfer of PBTs in pelagic predators to concentra ons above effects thresholds • Three factors highly correlated w/ PBTs – Residency in CPS (proximity to source) – exposure me (age) – trophic level Cherry Pt.
Fidalgo
Port PSAMP Orchard/ Herring Quilcene Madison Sampling Quartermaster Locations Harbor (Spawned Eggs)
James E. West, Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program, April 18th, 2008 Cherry Pt.
Fidalgo
Three Port Port Gamble locations Orchard/ exhibit Quilcene Madison chronic Quartermaster embryo Harbor mortality James E. West, Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program, April 18th, 2008
James E. West, Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program, April 18th, 2008 TPAH in Spawned Herring Eggs
Cherry Pt. Lower acute effects threshold Proposed by Carls et al. 1999 Fidalgo Bay
Quilcene
Pt. Orchard
QM Harbor
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Concentration (µg/kg, wet wt., ± s.e.)
James E. West, Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program, April 18th, 2008 Hidden Pt Bolin Cove TPAH uptake over time by spawned herring eggs
3 day, live Inner Hidden Cove 10 day, mostly dead
3 day, live Outer Hidden Cove 10 day, mostly dead
7 day , live Pt Bolin 12 day, near hatch
0 20 40 60 80 100 TPAHTPAH ug/kg ug/kg wwww Are sediments the source of PAHsthe source Are sediments Embryos? in % of Total PAH 10 12 10 12 14 16 18 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
NPH NPH C1NPH C1NPH C2NPH C2NPH C3NPH C3NPH
C4NPH C4NPH herring eggs 10-day-old
ACY Sediments ACY ACE ACE FLU FLU C1FLU C1FLU C2FLU C2FLU C3FLU C3FLU DBT DBT C1DBT C1DBT C2DBT C2DBT C3DBT C3DBT PHN PHN C1PHN C1PHN C2PHN C2PHN C3PHN C3PHN C4PHN C4PHN FLA FLA PYR PYR C1PYR C1PYR BAA BAA CHR CHR non-detects excluded excluded non-detects C1CHR C1CHR C2CHR C2CHR C3CHR C3CHR C4CHR C4CHR BBF BBF BKF BKF BAP BAP IDP IDP DBA DBA BZP BZP PAH in Sediments from 300 Puget Sound Locations
North (graph created from data supplied by Maggie Dutch, Washington Department of Ecology)
Central
South
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 µgTPAH/g TOC dw
2010 Washington Mussel Watch - Total PAHs 20000
Strait Juan South Main Basin Whidbey Basin and Strait of de Fuca Sound North Sound Georgia
15000
10000 ug/kg (ppb) dw
5000
0
adapted from A. Mearns NOAA 3/13/12
Conclusions (PAHs) • Herring embryos in a loca on where chronic mortality occurs exhibited PAH burdens above an effects threshold • Possible link between environmental PAHs and herring embryo survival • Herring typically spawn along unpolluted shorelines in Puget Sound – what if they spawn in urban areas where PAHs are very high?