Tw. Custer et Cm. Custer, TRANSFER AND ACCUMULATION OF ORGANOCHLORINES FROM BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON EGGS TO CHICKS, Environmental toxicology and chemistry, 14(3), 1995, pp. 533-536
Eggs and sibling 1-, 3-, and 5-d-old chicks from seven black-crowned n
ight-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) broods were collected from Green Ba
y, Wisconsin, and analyzed for organochlorines. The concentration (mu
g/g) of nine organochlorines either decreased (n = 7) or remained the
same (n = 2) as the chicks grew older. In contrast, the total mass (mu
g) of these nine organochlorines increased (n = 7) or remained the sa
me (n = 2) as the chicks grew older. Accumulation rates of mass (mu g/
d) between egg and 5-d-old chicks for each of the nine organochlorines
were positive and varied from 0.2 mu g/d (p,p'-DDT) to 42 mu g/d (PCB
s). These results suggest that the loss of contaminant mass from eggs
to chicks reported in some earlier studies was because the entire carc
ass was not analyzed (i.e., not including skin, gastrointestinal tract
, ect). These results also support the use of contaminant accumulation
rate as an indicator of local contamination.