Uptake and trophic modification of POPS in the benthic food chain relative to sediment conditions and feeding strategies

The purpose of the project is to understand how carbon sources, feeding dynamics, sediment geochemical and contaminant conditions, as well as metabolic processing affect the initial uptake and trophic exchange of POPs within the fauna living in direct contact with the sediments. The foundation for this work is based on a publication in Arch Env. Cont. Tox. 2014 (DOI 10.1007/s00244-014-0017-7). Results from this paper indicated how important carbon source (not just normalized organic carbon content of sediments) and feeding dynamics were to uptake of POPs. However data were limited or missing for a broad range of trophic levels, from organically enriched areas other than sewage outfalls where the greatest contamination occurs (such as PCBs in the major harbours), and from background locations. Using Salish Sea data from this published work, as well as additional samples collected in recent years to fill the aforementioned data gaps, we will use a multivariate analytical model to compare congener patterns in different media (sediments/deposit feeders/filter feeders/predators) to; a) identify consistent proportional patterns of congenors in different trophic groups, regardless of time, location, habitat conditions or initial habitat contaminant loads, and; b) identify initial uptake patterns from sediments under different habitat conditions, carbon sources and feeding behaviour/biomass turnover scenarios