Bioaccumulation of the new antifoulant medetomidine in marine organisms

Biofouling is a huge problem globally and new alternative antifoulants are presently being investigated. One candidate is medetomidine, a commonly used sedative in veterinary medicine, which has been shown to effectively prevent settlement of barnacles. The purpose of this study was to measure uptake, elimination and bioconcentration of medetomidine in Mytilus edulis, Abra nitida, Crangon crangon and periphyton communities to evaluate the risk of bioaccumulation in the marine environment. Bioconcentration factors (BCF) and bioaccumulation factors (BAF) were used to assess the bioaccumulation. The calculations of these factors were based on the distribution of the radiolabelled medetomidine. BCF for C. crangon was 2.8 while M. edulis had a BCF of 134 and the periphyton communities’ BCF was 1195 l/kg fresh weight (FW). The concentration of medetomidine in the animals reached steady state after 24–48 h for all test systems except for A. nitida, which never stabilised enough to calculate a bioaccumulation factor (BAF). Elimination from the organism’s tissues was rapid for three of the test systems with half-lives between 1 and 24 h. A. nitida had a half-life of 96–120 h. This study demonstrates that the bioconcentration and bioaccumulation of medetomidine differs between aquatic organisms and that microalgal communities in the form of periphyton have the highest bioconcentration factor of the organisms tested.