Considerations in Assessing the Potential for, and Significance of, Biomagnification of Chemical Residues in Aquatic Food Chains

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Abstract
The relative importance of dietary and aqueous exposure of bluegill sunfish to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, and leptophos are quantitatively evaluated at steady state. The results of this investigation indicate that the incremental steady-state body burden due to dietary exposure is statistically indistinguishable from that due to aqueous exposure. Critical analyses of similar studies with cadmium, endrin, and Kepone support the hypothesis that biomagnification of chemical residues within aquatic food chains is quantitatively insignificant when compared with the process of bioconcentration of chemical residues directly from water. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) appears to be the only chemical of those evaluated with a potential for significant accumulation of residues through an aquatic food chain. Data on the biological persistence of chemicals in aquatic organisms, as measured by the rate of depuration from tissues, appear to offer a mechanism for identifying those few chemicals which may have potential for measurable accumulation through food chains. All of the data presented indicate that the process of biomagnification, as classically defined, probably does not occur within communities of aquatic organisms.

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