2015-2016 Temporal and Spatial Trends of Legacy and Emerging Organic and Element Contaminants in Canadian Polar Bears

Long term purpose:In relation to the Blueprint section 7.4.8 Environmental Monitoring and Research - Marine Ecosystems, in polar bears from priority Canadian subpopulations, to determine spatial differences and/or temporal trends and changes, and conduct research to determine the influence of environmental processes and change, of legacy and new and emerging POPs of concern (Appendix A, Schedules A and B). These POPs and elemental/metal contaminants are priorities for the NCP (and information is needed for international treaties such as LRTAP and the Stockholm Convention), and contaminants data will also support other Canadian (e.g. Chemicals Management Plan Monitoring and Surveillance) and international chemical management and monitoring initiatives. Also, a long-term objective is to screen for new, emerging and targeted POPs that are regulatory priorities and predicted or likely to bioaccumulate in Canadian polar bears, which may also include congeners, isomers and/or precursors and degradation products.Short term purpose:1. For polar bears within the two management zones in (southern and western) Hudson Bay, in 2015-2016 to continue or establish to monitor with increased resolution, the (retrospective) temporal trends and changes of NCP priority, new and emerging POPs that are currently regulated or under review for regulatory action (e.g. the international treaty of the Stockholm Convention on POPs).2. Using carbon and nitrogen SIs and FAs as ecological tracers, examine the influence of diet/food web structure, trophic level, sex, age, time of collection and lipid content as confounding factors on POP temporal trends in Hudson Bay polar bears.3.To provide information to Hudson Bay aboriginal communities participating in the study, as well as other communities, on the levels, changes and fate of POPs in polar bears.4. To archive the remaining polar bear tissue samples that were collected in Environment Canadas National Wildlife Specimen Bank (EC-NWSB), NWRC, Carleton University.