Imposex occurrence in marine whelks at a military facility in the high Arctic

Imposex was found in the Arctic whelk Buccinum finmarkianum at several marine stations off Thule Air Base, an US military facility in Northwest Greenland. This indicates a widespread contamination with the antifouling agents, tributyltin (TBT) or triphenyltin (TPhT) in the area, but such contaminati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental pollution (1987) 2006-07, Vol.142 (1), p.98-102
Main Authors: Strand, Jakob, Glahder, Christian M., Asmund, Gert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
antifouling agents
Applied ecology
Arctic
Arctic Regions
bioaccumulation
Biological and medical sciences
biomarkers
Buccinum
Buccinum finmarkianum
Disorders of Sex Development - chemically induced
Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution
Environmental Monitoring - methods
females
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gastropoda
General aspects
Geologic Sediments - analysis
Greenland
Imposex
indicator species
Marine
Molluscacides - analysis
Molluscacides - toxicity
organotin compounds
Organotin Compounds - analysis
Organotin Compounds - toxicity
sediment contamination
sex differentiation disorders
Ships
snails
TBT
Trialkyltin Compounds - analysis
Trialkyltin Compounds - toxicity
tributyltin
triphenyltin
Water Movements
Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical - toxicity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Imposex was found in the Arctic whelk Buccinum finmarkianum at several marine stations off Thule Air Base, an US military facility in Northwest Greenland. This indicates a widespread contamination with the antifouling agents, tributyltin (TBT) or triphenyltin (TPhT) in the area, but such contamination was not supported by the organotin analyses in sediments, whelks and clams, which in general was below the analytical detection limit. Organotin concentrations above the detection limit were found only at one station close to a quay, where the highest frequency of imposex also occurred. This suggests that imposex in B. finmarkianum is a biomarker of TBT more sensitive than the detection limits, which the analytical chemistry could achieve in this study. Imposex as a biomarker was more sensitive for TBT than analytical chemical methods.
ISSN:0269-7491
1873-6424
DOI:10.1016/j.envpol.2005.09.014