title: Prediction of large variation in biota to sediment accumulation factors due to concentration-dependent black carbon adsorption of planar hydrophobic organic compounds.
abstract: Biota-to-sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs) sometimes show large variations between sites for a given planar hydrophobic organic compound (pHOC) in a given organism. We present a framework in which strong adsorption to soot/charcoal (black carbon [BC]) explains such BSAF variations. Recently constrained parameters on environmental BC sorption were used in a dual-mode sorption model of BSAE Variations in sedimentary BC content are shown to explain variations in BSAF of one to two orders of magnitude. In addition, strong BC sorption can explain the often-observed difference in BSAF between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The strong nonlinearity of BC sorption can render BSAF values strongly concentration-dependent for a given sediment/organism/compound combination, so it is of paramount importance to carry out uptake and toxicity tests at the relevant environmental concentrations.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Applied Environmental Research, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cornelissen
authors.forename: Orjan
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gustafsson
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D044822:Biodiversity; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D002244:Carbon; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls