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Hepatic Burdens of PCB and PCDD/F Congeners in Federally Endangered Shortnose Sturgeon and Atlantic Sturgeon from the Hudson River, New York, USA: Burden Patterns and Potential Consequences in Offspring

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Abstract

Sturgeon populations worldwide are threatened with extirpation but little is known about their tendency to bioaccumulate contaminants and their sensitivities to environmental burdens of these contaminants. Shortnose sturgeon and Atlantic sturgeon, two species that are federally endangered in the USA, co-occur in the Hudson River (HR) where high sediment levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-furans (PCDFs) occur. Previous controlled laboratory studies showed that young life-stages of both species are sensitive to toxicities at low levels of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) and PCB126 exposure. The objective here was to measure congener-specific hepatic levels of PCBs and PCDD/Fs in HR specimens in order to determine if in situ bioaccumulation of these compounds is sufficiently high to have caused the early life-stage toxicities previously observed. Estimates of hepatic burdens of PCBs and PCDD/Fs were obtained from a small number of specimens of each species collected between 2014 and 2016 and specimens of shortnose sturgeon collected over 30 years earlier and archived in a museum collection. Several significant patterns emerged. Hepatic levels of legacy PCBs and PCDDs were low in specimens of both species but typically higher in shortnose than Atlantic sturgeon, a pattern consistent with their habitat use in the HR. Hepatic burdens in shortnose sturgeon tended to be higher in archived specimens than in more recently collected ones despite expected reduction in archived specimens due to preservation methods. Several inadvertent PCBs congeners were detected at high levels, including PCB11, but their toxicity to natural populations remains unknown. Levels of select PCDFs congeners, 2,3,7,8-TCDF and 2,3,4,7,8 PeCDF, were elevated in some shortnose sturgeon individuals from the HR. Using Relative Potency (ReP) factors derived from white sturgeon, the observed levels of some hepatic PCDFs in HR shortnose sturgeon may have been sufficiently high to impair recruitment of young life-stages in this ecosystem.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a research grant from the Hudson River Foundation and funding from NOAA Protected Species. We also acknowledge support from National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center Grant EHS00260 to NYU and the continued support of the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center. We thank Mark Matsche and Kevin Rosemary of the Maryland DNR and Fred Jacobs and Justin Krebs of AKRF, Inc. for their assistance in sample collections.

Funding

This study was funded by a Grant from the Hudson River Foundation and was supplemented with support from NOAA. Support of the Molecular Facilities Core of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center Grant EHS00260 is also acknowledged.

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Drs. IW and RCC contributed equally to study conception and design. Sample acquisition and analyses by AXYS were coordinated by IW. The first draft of the manuscript was written by IW. Both authors read approve of the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Isaac Wirgin.

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Wirgin, I., Chambers, R.C. Hepatic Burdens of PCB and PCDD/F Congeners in Federally Endangered Shortnose Sturgeon and Atlantic Sturgeon from the Hudson River, New York, USA: Burden Patterns and Potential Consequences in Offspring. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 83, 21–35 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-022-00935-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-022-00935-6

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