Trace metals in green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) inhabiting two southern California coastal estuaries

Barraza, Arthur D.; Komoroske, Lisa M.; Allen, Camryn; Eguchi, Tomoharu; Gossett, Rich; Holland, Erika; Lawson, Daniel D.; LeRoux, Robin A.; Long, Alex; Seminoff, Jeffrey A.; Lowe, Christopher G.

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.01.107

i

Trace metals in green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) inhabiting two southern California coastal estuaries

2019
By Barraza, Arthur D. ; Komoroske, Lisa M. ; Allen, Camryn ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Chemosphere
Personal Author:

Barraza, Arthur D. ; Komoroske, Lisa M. ; Allen, Camryn ; Eguchi, Tomoharu ; Gossett, Rich ; Holland, Erika ; Lawson, Daniel D. ; LeRoux, Robin A. ; Long, Alex ; Seminoff, Jeffrey A. ; Lowe, Christopher G.
NOAA Program & Office:

NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; PIFSC (Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center) ; SWFSC (Southwest Fisheries Science Center)
Description:

Foraging aggregations of east Pacific green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) inhabit the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge (SBNWR) and San Diego Bay (SDB), two habitats in southern California, USA, located near urbanized areas. Both juvenile and adult green turtles forage in these areas and exhibit high site fidelity, which potentially exposes green turtles to anthropogenic contaminants. We assessed 21 trace metals (TM) bioaccumulated in green turtle scute and red blood cell (RBC) samples collected from SBNWR (n = 16 turtles) and SDB (n = 20 turtles) using acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Principal component analyses of TM composition indicate that SBNWR and SDB turtles have location-specific contaminant signatures, characterized by differences in cadmium and selenium concentrations: SBNWR turtles had significantly more cadmium and selenium in RBC and more selenium in scute samples, than SDB turtles. Cadmium and selenium concentrations in RBC had a strong positive relationship, regardless of location. SBNWR turtles had higher selenium in RBCs than previously measured in other green turtle populations globally. Due to different retention times in blood vs. scute, these results suggest that SBNWR turtles have high long- and short-term selenium exposure. Turtles from SBNWR and SDB had higher trace metal concentrations than documented in green turtle populations that inhabit non-urbanized areas, supporting the hypothesis that coastal cities can increase trace metal exposure to local green turtles. Our study finds evidence that green turtle TM concentrations can differ between urbanized habitats and that long-term monitoring of these green turtles may be necessary.
Keywords:

Environmental Chemistry Environmental Engineering General Chemistry General Medicine Health, Toxicology And Mutagenesis Pollution Public Health, Environmental And Occupational Health Health, Toxicology And Mutagenesis Public Health, Environmental And Occupational Health Health, Toxicology And Mutagenesis
Source:

Chemosphere, 223, 342-350
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.01.107
ISSN:

0045-6535
Format:

PDF
Publisher:

Elsevier BV
Document Type:

Journal Article
Rights Information:

Accepted Manuscript
Compliance:

Library
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:5e857bf75abf8665ca6a68bda38c94ec4dcb2378d4abf79bf98873831d65f2525ec70eb3080e72cdb85ddfc6e501ce24c5dc3d7d9e1b4dd700f3e627c4f93186
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/62569/noaa_62569_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 981.94 KB ]

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