Itsuki C. Handoh, Toru Kawai, Modelling exposure of oceanic higher
trophic-level consumers to polychlorinated biphenyls: Pollution
?hotspots? in relation to mass mortality events of marine mammals,
Marine Pollution Bulletin, Available online 9 July 2014, ISSN 0025-326X,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.06.031.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X14004111)
Abstract: Marine mammals in the past mass mortality events may have been
susceptible to infection because their immune systems were suppressed
through the bioaccumulation of environmental pollutants such as
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). We compiled mortality event data sets
of 33 marine mammal species, and employed a Finely-Advanced
Transboundary Environmental model (FATE) to model the exposure of the
global fish community to PCB congeners, in order to define critical
exposure levels (CELs) of PCBs above which mass mortality events are
likely to occur. Our modelling approach enabled us to describe the mass
mortality events in the context of exposure of higher-trophic consumers
to PCBs and to identify marine pollution ?hotspots? such as the
Mediterranean Sea and north-western European coasts. We demonstrated
that the CELs can be applied to quantify a chemical pollution Planetary
Boundary, under which a safe operating space for marine mammals and
humanity can exist.
Keywords: Chemical pollution; Polychlorinated biphenyls; Multi-media
model; Mortality events of marine mammals; Critical exposure level;
Planetary Boundaries