CEST2025

The complexity and diversity of organic contaminants in the environment demand innovative analytical tools to investigate their fate, transport, and biomagnification potential. Recent developments in high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), combined with enhanced data workflows, have enabled a comprehensive approach to chemical monitoring in apex predators and their food webs . A multi-technique platform based on both liquid and gas chromatography coupled to HRMS (LC-ESI-QTOF and GC-APCI-QTOF) has been applied to characterize a wide range of organic pollutants, including legacy priority substances and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). Wide-scope target screening enabled the quantification of over 2,400 chemicals across multiple compound classes (e.g., PFAS, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial compounds), while suspect and non-target screening workflows expanded the chemical space, supporting identification of unknowns through fragmentation pattern libraries, retention time models, and ion mobility-derived collision cross section (CCS) values. This approach has been applied to extensive wildlife samples from both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. In apex species such as raptors, marine mammals, and top fish predators, significantly higher levels of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were observed. PFOS and long-chain PFCAs (e.g., PFUnDA, PFDoDA) exhibited strong biomagnification potential in both environments, often exceeding thresholds for ecological concern. Other frequently detected substances included legacy chlorinated pesticides, current-use biocides, and transformation products of pharmaceuticals. These patterns were consistent across sample types (e.g., liver, egg, muscle), species, and trophic levels. By integrating wide-scope HRMS capabilities with advanced data processing pipelines, this analytical strategy provides deep insights into environmental chemical exposure and supports the prioritization of substances for regulatory consideration. These results highlight the importance of harmonized chemical surveillance across environmental compartments to assess chemical risks under real-world exposure conditions and trophic dynamics.