Distribution and accumulation of persistent organic pollutants in aquatic organisms of Chinese lakes

Abstract

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are usually carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic. They are widely and persistently present in the environment, and have high bioaccumulation ability by organisms. Lake is one of the main environmental sinks for POPs. POPs in lakes can be accumulated by aquatic organisms and transported through the food webs, which pose great risks to ecosystem and human health. China has the large usage and production of POPs, which also has large amount of lakes. Lake organisms, especially aquatic products, are important parts of the Chinese diet, thereby the enrichment of POPs in Chinese lakes and organisms poses great risks to the local ecosystems and human health. We collected and analyzed large amount of published data on POPs in organisms of Chinese lakes until July 2017. We found that previous studies on bioaccumulation of POPs in Chinese lakes mainly focused in the eastern plain lake area. There were only a few studies in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau Lake area. The concentrations of different POPs varied greatly in different lake organisms. DDTs were widely detected with little difference in concentrations in organisms in the studied lakes. The concentrations of HCHs, PCBs; and PBDEs in organisms in the eastern lake area were significantly higher than those in other lake areas. Only a few studies focused on bioaccumulation of other POPs by organisms in lakes, and were mainly in the lakes in the eastern plain. The concentrations of DDTs, HCHs, PAHs, PCBs, PBDEs, PCDD/Fs, PFOSs, PFOAs, Organotins and PHBCDs were 454.56±653.40, 153.57±435.99, 2849.49±3092.52, 159.22±272.36, 18.40±20.28, 17.43±19.43, 147.17±192.93, 1542.18±1347.64 and 2.19±1.92 ng/g in organisms of Chinese lakes based on the lipid content. Bioaccumulation of POPs in lake organisms is generally positively related to the trophic level, lipid content and age of organisms, but it is not always true. It is also impacted by factors such as living habits, biological species and composition, living environment and biomass. Bioaccumulation of POPs was also different in different tissues. Bioaccumulation of POPs was higher in liver, gallbladder, heart and head than that in muscle tissues.