THE SWEDISH ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIMEN BANK - APPLICATION IN TREND MONITORING OF MERCURY AND SOME ORGANOHALOGENATED COMPOUND

The Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB) at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, constitutes a base far ecotoxicological research as well as for spatial and trend monitoring of contaminants in Swedish fauna. Since the 1960s, tissue samples from more than 150 000 organis ms have been collected from different groups of animals, habitats and types of landscape. Samples from the ESB have been utilized for retros pective studies of trace elements, organohalogenated compounds and rad ionuclides. Among many matrices utilized, eggs of guillemot (Uria aalg e) have proven to be an appropriate matrix for assessment of the conta mination of the Baltic Sea. Results from time trend studies based on t his material showing trends in concentrations of DDT, PCB, PCDD/F, and mercury are presented in this paper. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.