Understanding exposure of wildlife to persistent pollutants in the UK and Antarctica

只要持久性化学品继续被释放并被运输到远离其制造和使用的偏远环境，它们就会在环境中积累。即使在采取管制行动后，其影响也难以逆转，因为浓度需要几十年才能下降。生物多样性和生态系统服务政府间小组认为，污染是生物多样性丧失的五大直接驱动因素，以往的经验表明，持久性有机污染物可能产生重大影响。滴滴涕在食肉鸟类体内和多氯联苯在鲸目动物体内的使用经验清楚地证明了这一点。因此，污染破坏了英国签署的《领导人保护自然承诺》的雄心，该承诺旨在加强全球生物多样性和英国25年环境计划的雄心。领导人承诺致力于采取有意义的行动，大幅减少环境污染。为实现这一目标，对持久性化学品采取的管制行动需要有强有力的证据基础，以确定令人关切的化学品，并了解环境暴露及其对野生动物造成的风险。它将生成关于化学品的持久性、流动性、生物累积性、通过食物链和远距离迁移的生物放大作用的数据，以更好地了解野生动物在环境中接触化学品的途径及其可能产生的影响。这将产生关键数据，为监管决策提供信息，包括在《斯德哥尔摩公约》中提名新的持久性有机污染物。这将与参与英国REACH和斯德哥尔摩公约（包括持久性有机污染物审查委员会）的政府政策小组和监管机构（Defra和环境局）的观点相结合，以确定哪些化学品将具有最大的监管相关性，以及数据将在哪些方面产生最强的影响。该项目将需要在Cefas小组的支持下，包括通过实验室安置，制定分析方法，以制备复杂的生物样品（如鲸油）。预计还将在Defra废物中的持久性有机污染物和化学品小组中再安排一个职位，以获得在政策环境中工作的经验和对多边环境协定的了解，然后将这些方法应用于来自Cefas和英国南极调查组织档案和取样小组的联合王国和南极的生物样本。Cefas提供的组织包括鲸目动物搁浅调查方案的鲸目动物（主要是港湾鼠海豚）和鱼类。从南极获得的样本包括海鸟和企鹅、鱼类、底栖无脊椎动物和浮游动物。将对至少两个营养级进行有针对性的分析，包括高营养级/顶级捕食者。还将在最高营养级进行非目标性分析，以确定最有可能发现新的生物累积化学品的物种。南极生物群样本还将使我们能够对选定的化学品进行跨生态系统筛选，涵盖初级生产者、食草动物、捕食者和高等捕食者。最后，该项目将通过分析环境样本（水和空气）来更好地了解环境暴露。如果可能的话，最后一年将通过英国南极调查局在南极进行实地工作，部署被动采样器收集这些样本，但这不能得到保证。可以考虑在英国进行替代实地考察，包括通过Cefas研究船Cefas Endeavour。

Persistent chemicals accumulate in the environment as long as they continue to be released and are transported to remote environments far from their manufacture and use. Their impacts are poorlyreversible even after regulatory action as concentrations take decades to decline. Pollution is recognised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services as a top five direct driver of biodiversity loss and previous experience has found that persistent organic pollutants can have major impacts. This is clearly evidenced by the experience with DDT in predatory birds and PCBs in cetaceans. As such, pollution undermines the ambitions of the Leaders Pledge for Nature, to which the UK is a signatory, to step up global ambition on biodiversity and the UK's 25 Year Environment Plan. The Leaders Pledge commits to meaningful action and to significantly reduce environmental pollution. To achieve this for persistent chemicals, regulatory action requires a strong evidence base to identify chemicals of concern and to understand environmental exposures and the risks they pose to wildlife.This project will investigate exposure of wildlife across the food web to persistent chemicals close to source in the UK and in the Antarctic following their long range transport to this remote environment. It will generate data on their persistence, mobility, bioaccumulation, biomagnification through the food chain and long range transport to better understand the environmental exposure pathways of wildlife to chemicals and the impacts that they may have. This will generate key data to inform regulatory decision making, including in the Stockholm Convention for nominating new Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).An initial component of the project will be to undertake a literature review to identify chemicals of concern for targeted analysis. This will be combined with perspectives of government policy teams and regulators (Defra and the Environment Agency) involved in UK REACH and the Stockholm Convention (including the POPs Review Committee - POPRC) to define which chemicals will have the most regulatory relevance and where data will have the strongest pathway to impact. The project will require development of analytical methods to prepare complex biological samples (such as cetacean blubber) with support from the Cefas team, including through a laboratory placement. An additional placement with the Defra Persistent Organic Pollutants and Chemicals in Waste team is also foreseen to gain experience working in a policy environment and insight into multilateral environmental agreements.These methods will then be applied to biological samples from the UK and Antarctica from the Cefas and British Antarctic Survey tissue archives and sampling teams. Tissues available from Cefas include cetaceans (mainly harbour porpoises) from the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme and fish. Samples available from the Antarctic include seabirds and penguins, fish, benthic invertebrates and zooplankton. Targeted analysis will be conducted on at least two trophic levels, including a high trophic level/top predator. Non targeted analysis will also be conducted at the highest trophic level to identify new bioaccumulative chemicals in the species where there is the highest chance of finding them. Antarctic biota samples will also allow us to conduct a cross ecosystem screen for selected chemicals covering primary producers, herbivores, predators and higher predators. Finally the project will look to better understand environmental exposures by analysing environmental samples (water and air). If possible field work will be conducted in Antarctica in the final year through the British Antarctic Survey, deploying passive samplers to collect these samples, but this cannot be guaranteed. Alternative fieldwork in the UK, including through Cefas Research Vessel Cefas Endeavour may be considered.