Variation in PFAA concentrations and egg parameters throughout the egg-laying sequence in a free-living songbird (the great tit, Parus major): Implications for biomonitoring studies.

Over the past decades, there has been growing scientific attention and public concern towards perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), due to their widespread presence in the environment and associations with adverse effects on various organisms. Bird eggs have often been used as less-invasive biomonitoring tools for toxicological risk assessments of persistent organic pollutants, including some PFAAs. Hereby, it is typically assumed that one random egg is representative for the PFAA concentrations of the whole clutch. However, variation of PFAA concentrations within clutches due to laying sequence influences can have important implications for the egg collection strategy and may impede interpretations of the quantified concentrations. Therefore, the main objective of this paper was to study variation patterns and possible laying sequence associations with PFAA concentrations in eggs of the great tit (Parus major). Eight whole clutches (4-8 eggs) were collected at a location in the Antwerp region, situated about 11 km from a known PFAA point source. The ∑ PFAA concentrations ranged from 8.9 to 75.1 ng g

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