Variation in Net Trophic Transfer Efficiencies among 21 PCB Congeners

We tested the hypothesis that the efficiency with which fish retain polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners from their food strongly depends on K ow and degree of chlorination of the congener. We used diet information, determinations of concentrations of individual PCB congeners in both coho salmon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 1999-11, Vol.33 (21), p.3768-3773
Main Authors: Madenjian, Charles P, Schmidt, Larry J, Chernyak, Sergei M, Elliott, Robert F, DeSorcie, Timothy J, Quintal, Richard T, Begnoche, Linda J, Hesselberg, Robert J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Atoms
BIOLOGICAL ACCUMULATION
Biological and medical sciences
BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE, APPLIED STUDIES
Chlorination
Chlorine containing polymers
Diet
Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution
Environment
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Fish
FOOD CHAINS
Fresh water environment
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Impurities
Lake pollution
Marine biology
Mathematical models
Molecules
North America, Michigan L
Oncorhynchus kisutch
PCB
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS
Risk assessment
SALMON
Studies
USA, Michigan L
WATER POLLUTION
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Summary:We tested the hypothesis that the efficiency with which fish retain polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners from their food strongly depends on K ow and degree of chlorination of the congener. We used diet information, determinations of concentrations of individual PCB congeners in both coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and their prey, and bioenergetics modeling to estimate the efficiencies with which Lake Michigan coho salmon retain various PCB congeners from their food. The retention efficiency for the tetrachloro congeners averaged 38%, whereas retention efficiencies for higher chlorinated congeners ranged from 43 to 56%. Not including tetrachloro congeners, we found neither decreasing nor increasing trends in the efficiencies with which the coho salmon retained the PCB congeners from their food with either increasing K ow or increasing degree of chlorination of the PCB congeners. We concluded that (a) for PCB congeners with 5−8 chlorine atoms/molecule, K ow and degree of chlorination had little influence on the efficiency with which coho salmon retained the various PCB congeners in their food, and (b) the efficiency with which coho salmon retained tetrachloro PCB congeners in their food appeared to be slightly lower than that for higher chlorinated PCB congeners.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/es9903882