Spatiotemporal Trends Spanning Three Decades Show Toxic Levels of Chemical Contaminants in Marine Mammals.

ABSTRACT: Despite their ban and restriction under the 2001 Stockholm Convention, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are still widespread and pervasive in the environment. Releases of these toxic and bioaccumulative chemicals are ongoing, and their contribution to population declines of marine mammals is of global concern. To safeguard their survival, it is of paramount importance to understand the effectiveness of mitigation measures. Using one of the world's largest marine mammals strandings data sets, we combine published and unpublished data to examine pollutant concentrations in 11 species that stranded along the coast of Great Britain to quantify spatiotemporal trends over three decades and identify species and regions where pollutants pose the greatest threat. We find that although levels of

SUBMITTER: Williams RS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10720377 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature