This review summarises our two decades of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) monitoring in different marine organisms along the eastern Adriatic Sea. The aim was to gain an insight into the trends of PCB distribution in order to evaluate the effectiveness of past and current legislation and suggest further action. Here we mainly focus on PCB levels in wild and farmed Mediterranean mussels, wild and farmed bluefin tuna, loggerhead sea turtles, common bottlenose dolphins, and small pelagic fish. The use of artificial intelligence and advanced statistics enabled an insight into the influence of various variables on the uptake of PCBs in the investigated organisms as well as into their mutual dependence. Our findings suggest that PCBs in small pelagic fish and mussels reflect global pollution and that high levels in dolphins and wild tuna tissues raise particular concern, as they confirm their biomagnification up the food chain. Therefore, the ongoing PCB monitoring should focus on predatory species in particular to help us better understand PCB contamination in marine ecosystems in our efforts to protect the environment and human health.
U ovom preglednom članku sažeto se opisuju rezultati našega monitoringa polikloriranih bifenila (PCB) u različitim morskim organizmima u istočnom Jadranskom moru u protekla dva desetljeća. Cilj je bio steći uvid u trendove raspodjele PCB-a kako bi se procijenila učinkovitost prošlih i postojećih zakonskih propisa te predložilo daljnje djelovanje. Fokus je na važnosti Jadranskoga mora, razinama PCB-a u divljim i uzgojenim mediteranskim školjkama, divljoj i uzgojenoj plavoperajnoj tuni, glavatim kornjačama, običnim dobrim dupinima i maloj plavoj ribi. Metodama umjetne inteligencije i napredne statistike omogućen je uvid u utjecaj različitih varijabli na unos PCB-a u istraživane organizme kao i njihovu međusobnu ovisnost. Naši rezultati pokazuju da su razine PCB-a u malim plavim ribama i školjkama odraz globalnoga onečišćenja okoliša, a visoke razine u tkivima dupina i divlje tune posebno su zabrinjavajuće. Potreban je daljnji nadzor PCB-a u morskom okolišu, s naglaskom na predatorske vrste.
Keywords: Jadransko more; Mediterranean Sea; PCB; PCBs; POP; POPs; Sredozemno more; artificial intelligence; environmental pollution; explainable artificial intelligence; marine environment; morski okoliš; objašnjiva umjetna inteligencija; onečišćenje okoliša; persistent organic pollutants; postojana organska zagađivala.
© 2024 Snježana Herceg Romanić et al., published by Sciendo.