Review articleHealth effects from long-range transported contaminants in Arctic top predators: An integrated review based on studies of polar bears and relevant model species
Section snippets
Questions addressed by the present review
The present review summarizes the impact from long-range transported contaminants in polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and predator model species (farmed Norwegian Arctic foxes [Vulpes lagopus] and housed Greenland sledge dogs [Canis familiaris]) and may be a useful tool for conventional work and species conservation. Studies of contaminants in the wild can be viewed as a large scale experiment of what happens when a chemical cocktail of thousands of toxic contaminants interact in an uncontrolled
Bioaccumulation of contaminants in polar bears and model species
In this review, Arctic top predators are defined as polar bears while housed West and East Greenland sledge dogs and farmed Norwegian Arctic foxes are included as model species. When obviously stressed, glaucous gulls (Larus hyperboreus) and Inuit data are also referred to while most literature on southern latitude species is excluded due to focus and volume limitations.
Arctic top predators inhabit a cold environment and therefore they rely on energy-rich fatty and waxy tissues as their main
Polar bear necropsy and live-capture sampling
Conducting research on mammal wildlife in the Arctic is logistically difficult and requires large economic resources. The National Environmental Research Institute in Denmark and The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources in Nuuk have succeeded in co-operating with local hunters in East Greenland (Scoreby Sound) since 1983. Thorough cooperation with the hunters has resulted in a unique high-quality sampling of multiple organ tissues and skull necropsies from ca. 200 individual polar bears
Designs of controlled contaminant studies: model species for polar bears
The East Greenland and Svalbard polar bears were chosen as study animals of contaminant and health impacts in the Arctic as these subpopulations contain some of the highest OHC concentrations in the world. Studying effects of contaminants in Arctic wildlife species, such as polar bears, is difficult and it is therefore not always possible to get access to the ideal samples needed to optimize the various analyses. For example, studying pathology in East Greenland polar bears requires a large
Exposure estimates for polar bears and model species
According to Stirling and McEwan, 1975, Kingsley, 1998 the yearly seal blubber consumption of a 200 kg polar bear is approximately 1000 kg. Based on concentrations in ringed seal (Phoca hispida) blubber from East Greenland sampled 1999–2002 (Rigét et al., 2004, Rigét et al., 2006, Rigét et al., 2008, Vorkamp et al., 2004) the mean daily OC exposure of a 200 kg East Greenland polar bear was estimated (Table 1). It is seen that the exposure is increasing in the order HCB < PBDEs < HCHs ∼ Dieldrin <
Health effects in polar bears and model species
The following sections desribe the relationships between contaminant (i.e. OHC and mercury) exposure and multiple organ-system effects in polar bears and relevant model species (Greenland sledge dogs and Norwegian Arctic toxes). It is important to note that the published polar bear data included in this review are correlative and descriptive and therefore do not directly demonstrate contaminant mediated cause and effect relationships. However, the data from model species indicate that what is
Climate change, contaminants and polar bears
Our earth suffers from severe climate change and ca. 10% of the sea ice in the North Pole has disappeared (∼ 72,000 km2/year) during 1970–2009 and the rate is accelerating (ACIA, 2005, Bjørgo et al., 1997, Chapman and Walsh, 1993, Divine and Dick, 2006, Parkinson et al., 1999, Ropelewski, 1985, Vinnikov et al., 1999, Zakharov, 1996). These accelerating biotope changes is suspected to result in the loss of approximately two third of the world's current polar bear population of ca. 25,000 specimens
Conclusions and recommendations
Evidence for multiple OHC and mercury induced sub-clinical health effects were found in East Greenland and Svalbard polar bears and except for bone density reductions, these were successfully supported by controlled studies of West Greenland sledge dogs and Norwegian Arctic foxes. The underlying mechanisms for these effects were thought to be via disruptions of neuro-endocrine loops as well as direct cellular toxicity (Fig. 14). Tissue residues, at which alterations were found, ranged from 1 to
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank The Lundbeck Foundation, Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic (Dancea), The Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland (KVUG) and The Prince Albert Foundation for their financial support. Rune Dietz and Robert J. Letcher are acknowledged for data contribution and national and international colleagues are acknowledged for commenting the MS as are five anonymous reviewers for their valuable inputs. Tinna Christensen and Morten Bjerrum are acknowledged for their
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