PCB congener accumulation by periphyton, herbivores, and omnivores

Abstract

The concentrations of 20 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners were measured in periphyton, herbivorous fish (stoneroller minnows, Campostoma anomalum), and omnivorous fish (striped shiners, Luxilus chrysocephalus) in an industrially contaminated stream and a reference stream in eastern Tennessee. The sum of the concentrations of the 20 congeners, normalized by dry mass, was one to two orders of magnitude higher in stonerollers and shiners than in periphyton. Normalizing PCB concentrations by lipid mass reduced concentration differences between periphyton and stonerollers, but PCBs per unit lipid in stonerollers were still 50-350% higher than those in periphyton. Shiners had significantly higher lipid-specific PCB concentrations than did stonerollers, so a trophic hierarchy of primary producer < herbivore < omnivore was evident in lipid-specific PCB concentrations. Differences in lipid type, exposure duration, and exposure sources may account for the trophic-level differences in total PCBs. Congener profiles were roughly similar in periphyton, stonerollers, and shiners: five congeners (IUPAC numbers 101, 110, 138, 153, and 180) constituted >60% of the total mass of PCBs analyzed in all three trophic levels. However, stoneroller and shiner tissue was enriched in congeners 153, 118, and 187 relative to periphyton; congeners 153 and 187 are resistant to metabolic breakdown by monooxygenases found in fish liver. Principal component analysis of congener percentages separated periphyton from fish and distinguished between sampling locations.