Bioaccumulation in Aquatic Systems

Illustrative Example 10.3 Estimating Equilibrium Bioaccumulation Factors from Air 

estimate the pure phase-water partition coefficients  

To relate this result to partitioning from air, recall that  

This matches the reported value quite well. 

In the real world, equilibrium partitioning between an organism and its surroundings may not be achieved, even if a compound is not metabolized by the organism. Therefore, the observed BAFt value (Eq. 10-8) may differ from the theoretical equilibrium expectation, KUo (Eq. 10-4). In fact, because the accumulation of a given chemical may depend on several different processes occurring at the same time (see example fish in Fig. 10.6), BAF, may change continuously with time for 

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Nendza, M. (1991). QSARs of bioconcentration validity assessment of logPow/ logBCF correlations. In Bioaccumulation in Aquatic Systems, eds. Nagel, R. and Loskill, R., Series, VCH, Weinheim, Germany, pp. 43-66. 

Hildebrand SG, Cushman RM, Carter JA. 1976. The potential toxicity and bioaccumulation in aquatic systems of trace elements present in aqueous coal conversion effluents. Proc Univ MO Annu Conf Trace Subst Environ Health. 10 305- 313. 

Nagel R, Loskill R, editors. 1991. Bioaccumulation in aquatic systems. Contributions to the assessment. Weinheim (DE) VCH. 

Butte W (1991) In Nagel R, Loskill R (eds) Bioaccumulation in Aquatic Systems, contribution to the Assessment. Proceedings of an International Workshop, Berlin 1990. VCH Weinheim New York Basel Cambridge, pp 29... 

Of particular concern is mono-methyl-mercury (MeHg) due to the high capacity of this species to bioaccumulate in aquatic systems and the need to be considered in risk assessment. The presence of MeHg in the atmosphere and its contribution to water bodies has been demonstrated, for example, by Bloom and Watras (1988), Hult-berg et al. (1995) and Brosset and Lord (1995). Since the concentration of MeHg in... 

McKim, J. M. and Schmieder, P. K. (1991) Bioaccumulation does it reflect toxicity , in Bioaccumulation in Aquatic Systems (eds R. Nagel and R. Loskill), VCH, Weinheim. 

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