Ebook: Pesticide Biotransport by Pacific Salmon in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean

Статья. Опубликована Doklady Biological Sciences, 2014, Vol 456, pp. 188–190.
DOI: 10.1134/S0012496614030089Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are toxic xenobiotics that circulate in the biosphere over decades. At present, the global background of POPs has been formed on the planet. The pollutants are transported by wind from the regions of their use (tropical and subtropical latitudes) over long distances to middle and polar latitudes. During the last third of the 20th century, hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) have been the most actively used among organochlorine pesticides OCPs. Along with the atmospheric transport, POPs are dispersed in the world ocean by marine organisms that migrate over long distances. Primarily, the biotransport of POPs is performed by salmon, the amount of which has increased recently and is now 1.0–1.5 million tons in the subarctic region of the Pacific Ocean. Along with biogenic elements, salmon, which die after spawning in rivers and lakes, contaminate their habitats with pollutants accummulated during their feeding and growing period in the ocean; the amount of pollutants may be high. The aim of our study was to estimate the role of Pacific salmon in global transport of OCPs during their biotransport from the open ocean to the Russian coast of the Far Eastern seas.