First screening of biocides, persistent organic pollutants, pharmaceutical and personal care products in Antarctic phytoplankton from Deception Island by FT-ICR-MS.

Duarte B

Duarte B(1), Gameiro C(2), Matos AR(3), Figueiredo A(3), Silva MS(4), Cordeiro C(4), Caçador I(5), Reis-Santos P(6), Fonseca V(7), Cabrita MT(8).
Author information:
(1)MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal; Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal. Electronic address: [Email]
(2)MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal; Instituto Do Mar e da Atmosfera
(IPMA), Rua Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho, 6, 1495-006, Algés, Lisboa, Portugal.
(3)BioISI - Biosystems and Integrative Sciences Institute, Plant Functional Genomics Group, Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal; Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal.
(4)Laboratório de FT-ICR e Espectrometria de Massa Estrutural, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo-Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal; Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal.
(5)MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal; Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal.
(6)MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal; Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia.
(7)MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal; Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal.
(8)Centro de Estudos Geográficos
(CEG), Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento Do Território
(IGOT), Universidade de Lisboa, Rua Branca Edmée Marques, 1600-276, Lisboa, Portugal.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129860

In recent years, the Antarctic territory has seen a rise in the number of tourists and scientists. This has led to an increase in the anthropogenic footprint in Antarctic ecosystems, namely in terms of emerging contaminants, such as Biocides, Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) as well as Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products (PPCPs). Yet scarce information on the presence of these emerging contaminants is available for trophic compartments, especially the phytoplankton community. Using high resolution Fourier-transform ion cyclotron-resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS), an untargeted screening of the metabolome of the phytoplankton community was performed. Seventy different contaminant compounds were found to be present in phytoplankton collected at two sites in Port Foster Bay at Deception Island. These emerging contaminants included 1 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), 10 biocides (acaricides, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides and nematicides), 11 POPs (flame retardants, paints and dyes, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), phthalates and plastic components), 5 PCPs (cosmetic, detergents and dietary compounds), 40 pharmaceutical compounds and 3 illicit drugs. Pharmaceutical compounds were, by far, the largest group of emerging contaminants found in phytoplankton cells (anticonvulsants, antihypertensives and beta-blockers, antibiotics, analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs). The detection of several of these potentially toxic compounds at the basis of the marine food web has potentially severe impacts for the whole ecosystem trophic structure. Additionally, the present findings also point out that the guidelines proposed by the Antarctic Treaty and Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty should be revisited to avoid the proliferation of these and other PPCPs in such sensitive environments.