SEDL / STP / STP766-EB / STP36724S

Prediction of Biological Availability of Organic Chemical Pollutants to Aquatic Animals and Plants

Lockhart, WL
Research scientist, chemist, biologist, and research scientist, Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Freshwater Institute, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Metner, DA
Research scientist, chemist, biologist, and research scientist, Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Freshwater Institute, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Blouw, AP
Research scientist, chemist, biologist, and research scientist, Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Freshwater Institute, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Muir, DCG
Research scientist, chemist, biologist, and research scientist, Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Freshwater Institute, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Pages: 14    Published: Jan 1982

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Abstract

Rainbow trout fry, chironomid larvae, and duckweed plants were exposed to a series of Carbon-14(¹⁴C)-labeled compounds in different water types in order to establish whether the water type influences the accumulation of compounds in the test organisms. Fish, insects, and plants consistently accumulated compounds less efficiently from river water than from dechlorinated city water, Suitable regression equations were found empirically to describe the accumulation of compounds in organisms, and the best equations for prediciting the accumulation of methoxychlor were presented. The effect of the water type could not be attributed to the specific chemical components in each water type. Sorption to suspended solids was thought to contribute to the differing efficiencies of uptake but not to fully explain the phenomenon. When methoxychlor was sorbed to celite particles prior to its presentation to organisms, nonfilter feeders accumulated methoxychlor much less efficiently than when this pesticide was presented as an emulsifiable formulation.