Endangered Vancouver Island marmots Marmota vancouverensis): sentinels of atmospherically delivered contaminants to British Columbia, Canada [Marmottes en danger de l’île de Vancouver Marmota vancouverensis) : sentinelles des contaminants atmosphériques sur la Colombie Britannique, Canada].

Résumé

We characterized legacy and new contaminants in the highly endangered Vancouver Island (British Columbia, Canada) marmot and found generally low blood and fat concentrations of a complex mixture of pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), -dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), -dibenzofurans (PCDFs), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) in their tissues. The dominance of the more volatile alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) pesticides and the lesser chlorinated PCB congeners suggests that atmospheric processes largely explain the contamination of this high-altitude herbivore.