Comments Concerning the National Swedish Contaminant Monitoring Programme in Marine Biota, 2004

• This report gives a summary of the monitoring activities within the national Swedishcontaminant programme in marine biota. It is the result from the joint efforts of: theInstitute of Applied Environmental Research at Stockholm University (analyses oforganochlorines), the Centre for Environmental Monitoring at the University of Agriculture(analyses of heavy metals) and the Contaminant Research Group at the Swedish Museumof Natural History (co-ordination, sample collection administration, sample preparation,recording of biological variables, minor additional analyses of organochlorines, storage offrozen biological tissues in the Environmental Specimen Bank for retrospective studies,data preparation and statistical evaluation). The monitoring programme is financiated bythe Environmental Protection Agency in Sweden.The data of concern in this report represent the bioavailable part of the investigatedcontaminants i.e. the part that has virtually passed through the biological membranes andmay cause biological effects. The objectives of the monitoring program in marine biotacould be summarised as follows:• to estimate the levels and the normal variation of various contaminants in marine biotafrom several representative sites, uninfluenced by local sources, along the Swedish coasts.The goal is to describe the general contaminant status and to serve as reference values forregional and local monitoring programmes• to monitor long term time trends and to estimate the rate of found changes.quantified objective: to detect an annual change of 10% within a time period of 10 years with a power of 80%at a significance level of 5%.• to estimate the response in marine biota of measures taken to reduce the discharges ofvarious contaminantsquantified objective: to detect a 50% decrease within a time period of 10 years with a power of 80% at asignificance level of 5%.• to detect incidents of regional influence or widespread incidents of ‘Chernobyl’-character and to act as watchdog monitoring to detect renewed usage of bannedcontaminants.quantified objective: to detect an increase of 200% a single year with a power of 80% at a significance levelof 5%.• to indicate large scale spatial differencesquantified objective: to detect differences of a factor 2 between sites with a power of 80% at a significancelevel of 5%.• to explore the development and regional differences of the composition and pattern ofe.g. PCB’s, HCH’s and DDT’s as well as the ratios between various contaminants.• the time series are also relevant for human consumption since important commercial fishspecies like herring and cod are sampled. A co-operation with the Swedish FoodAdministration is established. Sampling is also co-ordinated with SSI (Swedish RadiationProtection Authority) for analysing radionuclides in fish and blue mussels (HELCOM,1992).• all analysed, and a large number of additional specimens, of the annually systematicallycollected material are stored frozen in the Environmental Specimen Bank.. This invaluable4material enables future retrospective studies of contaminants impossible to analyse today aswell as control analyses of suspected analytical errors.• although the programme is focused on contaminant concentration in biota, also thedevelopment of biological variables like e.g. condition factor, liver somatic index (LSI) andfat content are monitored at all sites. At some few sites, integrated monitoring with fishphysiology and population are running in co-operation with the Swedish Fishery Board.• experiences from the national program with several time series of over 20 years can beused in the design of regional and local monitoring programmes.• the perfectly unique material of high quality, long time series is further used to explorerelationships among biological variables and contaminants concentrations in varioustissues; the effects of changes in sampling strategy, the estimates of variance componentsand the influence on the concept of power etc.• the accessibility of high quality data collected and analysed in a consistent manner is anindispensable prerequisite to evaluate the validity of hypothesis and models concerning thefate and distribution of various contaminants. It could furthermore be used as input of ‘real’data in the ongoing model building activities concerning marine ecosystems in general andin the Baltic and North Sea environment in particular.• the contaminant programme in marine biota constitute an integrated part of the nationalmonitoring activities in the marine environment as well as of the international programmeswithin ICES, OSPARCOM and HELCOM.The present report displays the timeseries of analysed contaminants in biota andsummarises the results from the statistical treatment. It does not in general give thebackground or explanations to significant changes found in the timeseries. Increasingconcentrations thus, urge for intensified studies.Short comments are given for temporal trends as well as for spatial variation and, for somecontaminants, differences in geometric mean concentration between various species caughtat the same site. Sometimes notes of seasonal variation and differences in concentrationbetween tissues in the same species are given. This information could say something aboutthe relative appropriateness of the sampled matrix and be of help in designing monitoringprogrammes. In the temporal trend part, an extract of the relevant findings is summarised inthe 'conclusion'-paragraph. It should be stressed though, that geographical differences maynot reflect antropogenic influence but may be due to factors like productivity, temperature,salinity etc.The report is continuously updated. The date of the latest update is reported at thebeginning of each chapter. The creation date of each figure is written in the lower leftcorner.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

biota

health

oceans

environment

Ängskärsklubb

Stora Karlsö

Harufjärden

Holmöarna

Fladen

Väderöarna

Utlängan

Kvädöfjärden

Landsort

Gotland

Egg

Contaminant

Validation

Marin miljö

Sample

Havsstrand

Detection

Fåglar

Analysis

Fiskar

Kust och hav

Coast and sea

A Non-Toxic Environment

Giftfri miljö

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

rap (ämneskategori)