Food chains, environmental

Borga, K., Gabrielsen, G.W., and Skaare, J.U. (2001). Biomagnification of organochlorines along a Barents sea food chain. Environmental Pollution 113, 187-198. 

Beyer WN. 1986. A reexamination of biomagnification of metals in terrestrial food chains. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 5 863-864. 

DDT is highly toxic to fish (LC q for trout and blue gill, 0.002—0.008 ppm), and it is only moderately toxic to birds (oral LD q mallard 1300 and pheasant >2240 mg/kg). However, widespread bird kills have resulted from bioconcentration of DDT through food chains, ie, from fish or earthworms. A significant environmental problem has resulted from the specific effects of DDE on eggshell formation in raptorial birds where accumulation has caused decreases in shell thickness of 10—15%, resulting in widespread breakage. 

Environmental problems associated with PCBs are the result of a number of factors. Several open uses of PCBs have resulted in thein direct introduction into the environment, eg, organic diluents careless PCB disposal practices have resulted in significant releases into aquatic and marine ecosystems higher chlorinated PCBs are very stable in thein persistence in different environmental matrices and by a variety of processes (Fig. 1) PCBs are transported throughout the global ecosystem and preferentiaHy bioconcentrate in higher trophic levels of the food chain. 

It is also important to develop an understanding of the movement of chemicals through the environment by investigating their fate and behaviour. Based on a chemical s inherent physicochemical properties, it is possible to predict with some degree of certainty which environmental compartment it is likely to reside in and to what extent it is likely to be bioavailable and accumulate through the food chain. 

Bioconcentration, Bio accumulation and Biomagnification. These aspects are determined by the physicochemical properties of a chemical, an organism s ability to excrete the chemical, the organism s lipid content and its trophic level. Bioconcentration relates to the difference between the environmental concentration and that of the body tissues. A high bioconcentration factor (BCF) predisposes to bioaccnmulation. The upper limit of bioaccnmulation is determined by lipid levels in the organism s tissues. Whether the resultant body burden causes biomagnification in the food chain depends upon the metabolic capabilities of the exposed organism. 

Figure 1. Conceptual model illustrating examples of major anthropogenic contaminant sources and contaminants, their distribution within the abiotic environmental media, their movement into biota with potential food chain contamination, and potential effects at the organismal, population, conmiunity and ecosystem level of organization.

In Chapter 3, the distribution of enviromnental chemicals through compartments of the gross environment was related to the chemical factors and processes involved, and models for describing or predicting environmental fate were considered. In the early sections of the present chapter, the discnssion moves on to the more complex question of movement and distribntion in the living environment— within individuals, communities, and ecosystems—where biological as well as physical and chemical factors come into play. The movement of chemicals along food chains and the fate of chemicals in the complex communities of sediments and soils are basic issues here. 

PCB mixtures were once used for a variety of purposes, and came to cause widespread environmental pollution. Over 100 different congeners are present in commercial products such as Aroclor 1248 and Aroclor 1254. PCBs are lipophilic, stable, and of low vapor pressure. Many of the more highly chlorinated PCBs are refractory, showing very strong biomagnification with movement along food chains. 

An environmental protocol has been developed to assess the significance of newly discovered hazardous substances that might enter soil, water, and the food chain. Using established laboratory procedures and C-labeled 2,3,7,8-tetra-chlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), gas chromatography, and mass spectrometry, we determined mobility of TCDD by soil TLC in five soils, rate and amount of plant uptake in oats and soybeans, photodecomposition rate and nature of the products, persistence in two soils at 1,10, and 100 ppm, and metabolism rate in soils. We found that TCDD is immobile in soils, not readily taken up by plants, subject to photodecomposition, persistent in soils, and slowly degraded in soils to polar metabolites. Subsequent studies revealed that the environmental contamination by TCDD is extremely small and not detectable in biological samples. 

Dr Georg Geisler is a product safety expert and modeller working with RCC Ltd, a Contract Research Organisation based in Basel, Switzerland. In this function, he conducts environmental risk assessments of pesticides, biocides and other chemicals, as well as safety assessments for pesticide residues in the food chain. In 2003, Georg Geisler earned his Ph.D. on environmental life-cycle assessment of pesticides at ETH Zurich. In 1999, he had received a Diploma in environmental chemistry at the Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany. 

Corrosion inhibitors used in offshore oil production are highly cationic. However, the use of such cationic-based corrosion inhibitors for offshore oil platforms is becoming less acceptable for environmental reasons. Cationic inhibitors are attracted to metal surfaces, thereby controlling the acid-type corrosion. When these cationic corrosion inhibitors enter seawater, they are attracted to a particular type of algae, diatomes. These algae are part of a food-chain for mussels. The cationic inhibitors inhibit the growth of these algae. Betaines and ampholytes [1067] can be used instead of cationic inhibitors or... 

Their residues were mobile, systemically within plants and environmentally in air, water, soil, and food chains. 

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