Feeding and biological differences induce wide variation in legacy persistent organic pollutant concentrations among toothed whales and polar bear in the Arctic

Polar bear and toothed whales in the Arctic exhibit orders of magnitude differences in concentrations of legacy persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which may be attributed to comparisons made across regions and different time frames. These interspecific differences could also be influenced by variations in biological susceptibility, including differences in xenobiotic biotransformation between polar bear, from the order Carnivora, and toothed whales, from the order Artiodactyla, as well as ecological factors, such as variation in feeding patterns. Here, weanalyzed samples from subsistence-harvested toothed whales and polar bear in East Greenland collected between 2012 and 2021 and quantitatively compared interspecific differences in blubber/adipose polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and organochlorine (OC) pesticide concentrations. We further determined fatty acid (FA) signatures as dietary tracers to evaluate how feeding patterns influence POP concentrations relative to the influence of biological differences between taxa. Killer whale exhibited the highest mean concentrations of sigma PCBs (57.0 +/- 14.0 mg/kg lw), sigma dichlorodiphentlytrichloroethanes (sigma DDTs; 55.7 +/- 13.1 lw), and sigma chlordanes (sigma CHLs; 23.1 +/- 5.6 mg/kg lw), while polar bear showed the second highest concentrations for sigma PCBs (12.5 +/- 1.3 mg/kg lw), but comparable or even lower levels of all OCs relative to narwhal and pilot whale. Linear models using FA patterns as explanatory variables for POP concentrations demonstrated that, for sigma PCBs, diet differences explained most of the variation. Conversely, biological differences explained more of the variation for most OCs, especially for DDT, for which polar bear showed the lowest concentrations despite feeding on similarly high trophic position prey as killer whale. This novel quantitative comparison confirms that significant differences in legacy POP concentrations occur among Arctic marine mammal predators. Furthermore, the drivers of these differences are contaminant-specific, with feeding patterns primarily influencing PCB concentrations, taxa-specific biological characteristics (e.g., in xenobiotic biotransformation capacity) affecting DDT concentrations, and both factors contributing to variation in other OCs.

Automated summary

There are significant differences in the concentrations of legacy persistent organic pollutants (POPs) between polar bears and toothed whales in the Arctic, which can be attributed to regional and temporal variations, differences in biological susceptibility, and ecological factors. Analyzing samples from East Greenland, it was found that feeding patterns have a greater influence on pollutant concentrations, while biological differences primarily affect certain organochlorine compounds.