Hexachlorobenzene in a Southern Ocean food web; Contaminant accumulation & global comparisons

Abstract

Further to a recent baseline survey of legacy and emerging persistent organic pollutant (POP) contamination in the Antarctic keystone species, Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) from the eastern Antarctic sector1, additional samples of phytoplankton and humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) blubber, were analysed. Results corroborate previous findings that unlike the Arctic where PCBs and HCH dominate chemical profiles, chlorobenzenes and particularly hexachlorobenzene (HCB) dominate in the Southern Ocean food web2. Here we collate current findings and existing data from the Southern Ocean in order to draw critical comparisons of HCB contamination with Arctic and temperate northwest Atlantic trophic level counterparts.