1. Bioaccumulation and Bio-concentration
4/26/2018
Mr. Bijesh Mishra
Graduate Student
Environment Science and Bioremediation (ENV 595)
College of Agriculture, Food Science, and Sustainable Systems
Kentucky State University (KYSU)

2. Outlines of the Slides:
What is Bio-concentration and Bioaccumulation?
How Bioaccumulation differs with Bio magnification?
The capacity of chemical to bio-concentrate and bio-accumulate.
Components of Modeling Framework for Bio-concentration.
Factors leading to Bioaccumulation and Bioconcentraiton.
Assessment of Bioaccumulation.
Effect of Bioaccumulation and Bio-concentration.
Reference.

3. What is Bio-concentration?
Intake of Chemical contamination through organisms’ epithelial tissues or gills.
Exceeds the level of concentration of chemical in aquatic organism than the concentration level of chemical in water.
(Konasewich et al., 1982)
Bio-concentration is the most popular term for
describing the process by which pesticides enter
organisms directly from water through the gills
or through epithelial tissues.
(Katagi, 2010)

4. What is Bio-accumulation?
Intake of Chemical contamination through all route of chemical exposures: Viz.
Respiratory Surface,
Dermal Absorption
Dietary Absorption.
Exceeds the level of concentration of
chemical in aquatic organism than the
concentration level of chemical in water.
(Arnot & Gobas, 2003)
It is the process by which chemical
contamination in organism increase with
each steps in the food chain and food web.
(Gobas et al. 1999)

5. Bio-concentration and Bioaccumulation Together:
Bioaccumulation = Bio-concentration + food chain transfer – (elimination + growth dilution)
(Yarsan & Yipel, 2013).

6. How Bioaccumulation differs with Biomagnification?
When the levels of a pesticide, accumulated by organisms, are concentrated through two or more trophic levels in a food web, the process is referred to as bio-magnification
(Katagi, 2010).

7. The capacity of chemical to bio-concentrate and bio-accumulate depends upon:
Properties of Chemical:
Hydrophobicity.
Lithophobocity.
Resistant to Degradation.
Environmental Factors:
Salinity.
Temperature.
Concentration of other chemical.
Redox potential.
Biotic Factors:
Organism’s mode of feeding.
Trophic Position.
Lipid Concentration and Metabolism.
Bioavailability:
Current Chemical Inputs.
Transportation Mechanisms.
Degree of Contamination.
Degree of bio-magnification in lower trophic level.
(Hall, 2002) (Gobas et al. 1999)

8. Components of Modeling Framework for Bio-concentration:
(Imhoff et al., 2004)

9. Factors leading to Bioaccumulation and Bioconcentraiton
Metals (Al, As, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, Zn, etc.)
Pesticides (organophosphorus, etc.)
Halogenated compounds (chloral, brome, aromatic compounds, etc.)
Halomethanes (chloroform, bromoform)
Dioxins (TCDD, PCDD, HCDD, OCDD)
Furans (TCDF, PCDF, HCDF, OCDF)
Polychlorobiphenyls (PCB)
Polybromobiphenyls (PBBs)
Chlorophenols (PCP)
Chlorinated naphthalenes (tetracloronaphthalen, etc.)
Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)
Nitrile compounds (acetonitrile, glyconitrile, etc.)
N-Nitroso compounds (nitrosamines, etc.)
(Yarsan & Yipel, 2013)

10. Assessment of Bioaccumulation:
Screening Method considering minimal set of physico-chemical data and knowledge of chemical structures such as fat solubility, surface activity, adsorption, structural features are used.
High fat solubility with respect to storage of fat in adult fish symbolize high probability of bioaccumulation.
Active surface may accumulate itself and may enhance bioaccumulation of chemical present.
Adsorption into biological surface and uptake of substance from food chain may enhance bioaccumulation. So, high adsorption capacity can be regarded as addition potential of bioaccumulation.

11. Effect of Bioaccumulation and Bio-concentration
Long term effect of bioaccumulation because of persistent chemical can be seen as damage to organisms and decline in population of species.
Heavy metals such as organic and biomethylated mercury, lead, cadmium, and organic tin can cause environment degradation in local level. The effect of organo-chlorine compounds are more widespread.
(Paasivirta, 2000)
The binding of certain metals onto binding sites on the cell wall can lead to cell surface disruption affecting cell morphology and metabolism leading to death of organism.

12. Effect of Bioaccumulation and Bio-concentration (contd.)
Cadmium even in subchronic dose can cause morphological damage killing large area of epithelial cells in hepato-pancreas detaching it from basal lamina in fish.
Different degree of histopathological changes has been observed in fish exposed in different doses of chemical.
Hepatic tissues of fish exposed in 10% LC50 showed increased vacuolation of hepatocytes and coarse granules of cytoplasm.
Abundant erythrocytic infiltration among hepatocytes is seen in fish exposed to 20% LC50.
Goblet cells proliferated with great increase in size, the longitudinal muscularis mucosa was disturbed in intestinal tissue in exposed fish to cadmium.

13. Effect of Bioaccumulation and Bio-concentration (contd.)
Metal toxicity creates severe problem in reproductive system of zooplankton by decreasing number of eggs, abortion, delay age of first off-spring and disruption in ovarian development.
(Hook & Fischer, 2001)
Metal pollution and accumulation may strongly reduce the abundance, species richness, and diversification of zooplankton leading to effect in trophic chain.
When fat cell of zooplankton exposed to metal, the protein production in egg decrease altering the nutrient of neonates during egg stage leading to death of embryo.
(Magalhães, Marques, Baptista, & Buss, 2015)

14. Effect of Bioaccumulation and Bio-concentration in human health.
Organometallics (metal bounded by an organic liquids) and organic chemicals pose human health risk. It is exposed to human because of consumption of meat, fish, plants, drinking water, soil, plant chips etc.
A research done in Taiwan shows strong correlation between concentration of arsenic in fish and shrimp and that in groundwater.
Because of consumption of contaminate fish and shrimps, peoples are exposed to cancer 200 times greater that minimum cancer risk.
(USGS, 2015)

15. References:
Arnot, A. J., & Gobas, F. A. (2003). A Generic QSAR for Assessing the Bioaccumulation Potential of Organic Chemicals in Aquatic Food Webs. QSAR Comb. Sci(22),
Beek, B., Bohling, S., Bruckmann, U., Franke, C., Jonhcke, U., & Studinger, G. (1999). The Assesment of Bioaccumulation. In B. O. Beek, Bioaccumulation New Aspects and Developments (pp ). New York: Springer.
Gobas, F. A., Wilcockson, J. B., Russell, R. W., & Haffner, H. E. (1999). Mechanism of Biomagnificaiton in fish under laboratory and field conditions. Environment Science and Technology, 33(1),
Hall, J. E. (2002). Bioconcentration, Bioaccumulation, and Biomagnification in Puget Sound Biota: Assessing the Ecological Risk of Chemical Contaminants in Puget Sound. University of Washington Tacoma. Retrieved from
Hook, S.E., Fisher, N.S. (2001). Sublethal effects of silver in zooplankton: importance of exposure pathways and implications for toxicity testing. Environ Toxicol Chem 20:568– 574
Imhoff, J. C., Clough, J., Park, R. A., & Stoddard, A. (2004). Evaluation of Chemical Bioaccumulation Models of Aquatic Ecosystem. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development. Athens, Georgia: Ecosystem Research Division. Retrieved 04 11, 2015, from
Kar, S., Maity, J. P., Jean, J. S., Lui, C. C., Lui, C. W., Bundschuh, J., & Lu, H. Y. (2011). Health risks for human intake of aquacultural fish: Arsenic bioaccumulation and contamination. J Environ Sci Health A Tox Hazard Subst Environ Eng., 46(11), doi: /
Katagi, T. (2010). Bioconcentration, Bioaccumulation, and Metabolism of Pesticides in Aquatic Organisms. In D. M.Whitacre, Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (pp ). New York: Springer. doi: / _1
Konasewich, D. E., Chapman, P. M., Gerencher, E., Vigers, G., & Treloar, N. (1982). Effects, pathway, process and transformation of Pugets Sound Contaminants of Concern. NOAA technical Memorandum OMPA-20.
Magalhães, D. d., Marques, M. R., Baptista, D. F., & Buss, F. D. (2015). Metal bioavailability and toxicity in freshwaters. Environmental Chemistry Letters, 13(1), doi: /s
Paasivirta, J. (2000). Long-term Effects of Bioaccumulation in Ecosystems. In B. Beek, Bioaccumulation – New Aspects and Developments (pp. pp ). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. doi: / _3
Sinha S, Bhatt K, Pandey K, Singh S, Saxena R,. (2003). Interactive metal accumulation and its toxic effects under repeated exposure in submerged plant najas indica cham. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 70:0696–0704
USGS. (2105). Bioaccumulative Contaminants. Human Health. Retrieved 04 11, 2015, from
Yarsan E, Yipel M. (2013). The Important Terms of Marine Pollution “Biomarkers and Biomonitoring, Bioaccumulation, Bioconcentration, Biomagnification”. J Mol Biomark Diagn S1: 003. doi: / S1-003
Younis, E., Abdel-Wahab, A.-W., Al-Asgah, N., & Hossam, E. (2015). Histopathological alterations in the liver and intestine of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus exposed to long- term sublethal concentrations of cadmium chloride. Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology. doi: /s