Author: Joop Hermens
Reviewers: Kees van Gestel and Philipp Mayer
Learning objectives:
You should be able to
Key words: Bioaccumulation, lipid content
Introduction: terminology for bioaccumulation
The term bioaccumulation describes the transfer and accumulation of a chemical from the environment into an organism.” For a chemical like hexachlorobenzene, the concentration in fish is more than 10,000 times higher than in water, which is a clear illustration of “bioaccumulation”. A chemical like hexachlorobenzene is hydrophobic, so has a very low aqueous solubility. It therefore prefers to escape the aqueous phase to enter (or partition into) a more lipophilic phase such as the lipid phase in biota.
Uptake may take place from different sources. Fish mostly take up chemicals from the aqueous phase, organisms living at the sediment-water interphase are exposed via the overlying water and sediment particles, organisms living in soil or sediment via pore water and by ingesting soil or sediment, while predators will be exposed via their food. In many cases, uptake is related to more than one source. The different uptake routes are also reflected in the parameters and terminology used in bioaccumulation studies. The different parameters include the bioconcentration factor (BCF), bioaccumulation factor (BAF), biomagnification factor (BMF) and biota-to-sediment or biota-to-soil accumulation factor (BSAF). Figure 1 summarizes the definition of these parameters. Bioconcentration refers to uptake from the aqueous phase, bioaccumulation to uptake via both the aqueous phase and the ingestion of sediment or soil particles, while biomagnification expresses the accumulation of contaminants from food.
Figure 1. Parameters used to describe the bioaccumulation of chemicals.
Caq concentration in water (aqueous phase)
Corg concentration in organism
Cf concentration in food
Cs concentration in sediment or soil
Please note that the bioaccumulation factor (BAF) is defined in a similar way as the bioconcentration Factor (BCF), but that uptake can be both from the aqueous phase and the sediment or soil and that the exposure concentration usually is expressed per kg dry sediment or soil. Other definitions of the BAF are possible, but we have followed the one from Mackay et al. (2013). “The bioaccumulation factor (BAF) is defined here in a similar fashion as the BCF; in other words, BAF is CF/CW at steady state, except that in this case the fish is exposed to both water and food; thus, an additional input of chemical from dietary assimilation takes place”.
All bioaccumulation factors are steady state constants: the concentration in the organism constant and the organisms is in equilibrium with its surrounding phase. It will take time before such an steady state is reached. Steady state is reached when uptake rate (for example from an aqueous phase) equals the elimination rate. Models that include the factor time in describing the uptake are called kinetic models; see section on Bioaccumulation kinetics.
Effect of biological properties on accumulation
Uptake of chemicals is determined by properties of both the organism and the chemical. For xenobiotic lipophilic chemicals in water, organism-specific factors usually play a minor role and concentrations in organisms can pretty well be predicted from chemical properties (see section on Structure-property relationships). For metals, on the contrary, uptake is to a large extent determined by properties of the organism, and a direct consequence of its mineral requirements. A chemical with low bioavailability (low uptake compared to concentration in exposure medium) may nevertheless accumulate to high levels when the organism is not capable of excreting or metabolising the chemical.
Factors related to the organism are:
DBW |
overall organism-water distribution coefficient (or surrogate BCF) at a given pH |
DSL-W |
storage lipid-water distribution ratio |
DML-W |
membrane lipid-water distribution ratio |
DNLOM-W |
sorption coefficient to NLOM (non-lipid organic matter, for example proteins) |
fSL |
fraction of storage lipids |
fML |
fraction of membrane lipids |
fNLOM |
fraction of non-lipid organic matter (e.g. proteins, carbohydrates) |
fW |
fraction of water |
Figure 2. The influence of lipid content on the bioconcentration of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene in different fish species (reproduced using data from Geyer et al., 1985).
Table 1. Mean PCB concentrations in algae (Dunaliella spec.), rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis) and anchovies larvae (Angraulis mordax), expressed on a dry-weight basis and on a lipid basis. From Moriarty (1983).
Organism |
Lipid content (%) |
PCB-concentration based on dry weight (µg g-1) |
PCB-concentration based on lipid weight (µg g-1) |
BCF based on concentration in the lipid phase |
algae |
6.4 |
0.25 |
3.91 |
0.48 x 106 |
rotifer |
15.0 |
0.42 |
2.80 |
0.34 x 106 |
fish (anchovies) larvae |
7.5 |
2.06 |
27.46 |
13.70 x 106 |
Figure 3. Concentrations of DDT in dolphins of different age and the difference between male and female dolphins Redrawn from Abernou et al. (1986) by Wilma IJzerman.
Cited references
Abarnou, A., Robineau, D., Michel, P. (1986). Organochlorine contamination of commersons dolphin from the Kerguelen islands. Oceanologica Acta 9, 19-29.
Armitage, J.M., Arnot, J.A., Wania, F., Mackay, D. (2013). Development and evaluation of a mechanistic bioconcentration model for ionogenic organic chemicals in fish. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 32, 115-128.
Geyer, H., Scheunert, I., Korte, F. (1985). Relationship between the lipid-content of fish and their bioconcentration potential of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene. Chemosphere 14, 545-555.
Mackay, D., Arnot, J.A., Gobas, F., Powell, D.E. (2013). Mathematical relationships between metrics of chemical bioaccumulation in fish. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 32, 1459-1466.
Moriarty, F. (1983). Ecotoxicology: The Study of Pollutants in Ecosystems. Publisher: Academic Press, London.
Van der Heijden, S.A., Jonker, M.T.O. (2011). Intra- and interspecies variation in bioconcentration potential of polychlorinated biphenyls: are all lipids equal? Environmental Science and Technology 45, 10408-10414.
Suggested reading
Mackay, D., Fraser, A. (2000). Bioaccumulation of persistent organic chemicals: Mechanisms and models. Environmental Pollution 110, 375-391.
Van Leeuwen, C.J., Vermeire, T.G. (Eds.) (2007). Risk Assessment of Chemicals: An Introduction. Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Chapter 3.