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Ottawa, Canada (pte037/15.07.2005/13:58) - A Canadian team of scientists from the University of Ottawa have found that toxic faeces from Arctic seabirds may explain high levels of pollution in northern coastal ecosystems.
Their research could help native communities at risk of consuming poisons through their diets to come up with new harvesting strategies to reduce chemical content in their diet.
Leader of the study, Jules Blais http://www.bio.uottawa.ca/scripts/mbr-e.php?id=2 , said, "Seabirds are very efficient concentrators of contaminants. If we can show that these chemicals flow in a predictable pattern, then we can alleviate the human problems just by altering food choices."
Over the years, toxic chemicals such as mercury, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been accumulating in Arctic air, soils, water, animals and people. Those most exposed to PCBs are native populations of northern regions.
Through a process called 'global distillation' pollutants have aggregated in the north - pollutants have the tendency to evaporate at warmer temperatures, and travel northwards on atmospheric currents, then condensing out of the cooler air there.
Blais' research postulates that Arctic seabirds might be carriers of toxins because they travel up to 1000 kilometres when looking for food. Their faeces (guano) is eaten by a variety of animals after it has been deposited onshore and providing nutrients for plants.
The scientists compared soil and water away from the huge nesting colonies of the birds and found that ponds sitting directly where it received guano runoff had up to 10 times the amount of HCB, long-lived chlorinated pollutants, 25 times the amount of mercury and 60 times the amount of the pesticide DDT.
Blais hopes to map the path of the pollution trail so that the natives can avoid gathering food in those areas, and safely be able to maintain their traditional food diet.
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