Temporal Trends of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Prussian Carp (Carassius gibelio) of the Amur (Heilong) River Basin (2019–2021)

The Amur (Heilong) River is one of the largest in northeast Asia. Even though the Amur River Basin has high economic, transport and environmental importance for the region, its monitoring is very limited. Existing research on the POPs pollution of the Amur River focuses primarily on the study of abiotic components of the ecosystem—water and bottom sediments. Most of the research are carried out in the Songhua River, China (a tributary of the Amur). The work presents the concentrations of POPs (DDT, HCH, PCBs, dieldrin and endrin) in the muscles of Prussian carp (Carassius gibelio) in the lower reaches of the Amur River and describes the temporal trends of pollutant levels from 2019 to 2021. Concentrations of pesticides in samples increased significantly from 2019 to 2020 and decreased just as sharply in 2021. Nevertheless, on average levels of the Amur River pollution were less or of the same magnitude as in other regions. Prussian carp are convenient objects for biomonitoring and well reflect trends in changes in pollutant concentrations in the Amur River.