Organic compounds temporal trends at some invertebrate species from the Balearics, Western Mediterranean S. Deudero a, * , A. Box a , D. March a , J.M. Valencia b , A.M. Grau b , J. Tintore c , M. Calvo d , J. Caixach d a Laboratorio de Biologia Marina and GOI-IMEDEA (CSIC/UIB), Guillem Colom, Campus Universitari, Ctra. de Valldemossa, km 7.5, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain b C/ Foners, 10. Direccio ´ n General de Pesca. Conselleria d’ Agricultura i Pesca, Govern Balear, Spain c Grup d’Oceanografia Interdisciplinar (GOI)-Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avanc ¸ats-CSIC/UIB, Miquel Marques 21, 07195 Esporles, Spain d Laboratori d’Espectrometria de Masses, Departament d’Ecotecnologies, Institut d’Investigacions Quı ´miques i Ambientals de Barcelona-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientı ´ficas (IIQAB-CSIC), Jordi Girona 18, 08034 Barcelona, Spain Received 11 May 2006; received in revised form 27 March 2007; accepted 30 March 2007 Available online 23 May 2007 Abstract Concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dichlore diphenyl trichloretane (DDT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (c-HCH or lindane) were determined in tissue of marine benthic invertebrates such as Mytilus galloprovincialis, Chamelea gallina, Venus verrucosa, Lithophaga lithophaga and Paracentrotus lividus. Spe- cies were selected due to their habitat, trophic level, feeding behaviour and their consumption. Invertebrate species were systematically sampled from December 1996 to December 2005 from several sites along the Balearic Islands. The highest concentrations of PCBs (785 ng/g lipid) were found in M. galloprovincialis while the lowest concentrations were found in the sea-urchin P. lividus (193 ng/g lipid). Among the 7 PCB quantified congeners the higher values are mainly obtained for CB138 and CB153. All bivalves presented higher PCBs contents than the sea-urchin P. lividus are possibly linked with the bioaccumulation process of POPs throughout the food web and to differential detoxifying mechanisms. The concentration of P DDT exceeds that of HCB and c-HCH at all species and sampling stations. DDT concentrations ranged from 0.4 ng/g ww at the bivalve C. gallina in 2002, to values of 15.8 ng/g ww at the bivalve L. lithophaga in 1998. The values obtained for the organic compounds (HCH, HCB, PCBs, DDT) depend upon the place and year of sampling and are compared to values found by other authors for the mussel M. galloprovincialis in other Mediterranean areas. c-HCH and HCB were found in lower concentrations than the other POPs. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Organic compounds; Bioaccumulation; Mytilus galloprovincialis; Chamelea gallina; Lithophaga lithophaga; Balearic Islands 1. Introduction The use of bivalves as sentinels organisms for monitor- ing pollution of the marine environment is widely applied (Goldberg et al., 1978; Rainbow, 1995; Sericano, 2000; Andral et al., 2004). The main mechanisms associated with the effects of contaminants at the marine organisms are bioaccumulation and biomagnification (Islam and Tanaka, 2004). Bioaccumulation in the organisms allows to with- stand the diurnal fluctuations at the water masses, and altogether with the biomagnification process simplifies the analytical quantification of pollutants linked with the higher retention pollution levels attained by the organisms when compared with the water or sediment levels (Andral et al., 2004). Bivalves are sessile and filter feeding organ- isms concentrate contaminants to levels above those 0045-6535/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2007.03.070 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 971173138; fax: +34 971173184. E-mail address: salud.deudero@uib.es (S. Deudero). www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere Chemosphere 68 (2007) 1650–1659