BIOACCUMULATION

BIOACCUMULATION
Bioaccumulation = the accumulation of a contaminant or toxin in or on an organism from all sources (e.g., food, water, air). An increase in the concentration of a chemical in a biological organism over time, compared to the chemical's concentration in the environment.

Compounds accumulate in living things any time they are taken up and stored faster than they are broken down (metabolized) or excreted.

 Bioaccumulation: increase in concentration of a pollutant from the environment to the first organism in a food chain. Bioaccumulation is a normal and essential process for the growth and nurturing of organism All animals including humans daily bioaccumulate many vital nutrients, such as vitamins A, D & K trace minerals and essential amino acids Because bioaccumulation is net result of the interaction of uptake, storage and elimination of a chemical

 Bioaccumulation does not always result in biomagnifications. Bioaccumulation is not all ways harmful. It can be protective when the body accumulates needed chemicals e.g., Ca++ Generally, increased concentration due to bioaccumulation or biomagnifications could result in toxic effects.

Bioaccumulation - where the chemical

concentration in an organism achieves a level that exceeds that in the water/media as a result of chemical uptake through all routes of exposure.
Conc. in organism Bioaccumulation factor = Conc. in food (or ingested water)

A number of terms are used in conjunction with bioaccumumlation. Uptake describes the entrance of a chemical into an organism such as by breathing, swallowing or absorbing it through the skin without regard to its subsequent storage, metabolism, and excretion by that organism

 Bioaccumulation is the uptake of chemicals in organisms from the surrounding medium (water, pore water) by gills, skin, etc. or by ingestion of particle- bound chemicals. However, the distinction between the exclusive uptake of the truly dissolved phase and other fractions (colloidal, dispersed, emulgated) is not clearly definable. Uptake: usually by passive diffusion off the lipid soluble substance

Storage refers to the temporary deposit of a chemical in body tissue or in an organ water soluble substances are less taken up and, therefore, less stored. But they are easily eliminated (Exceptions: Hg, Pb, Cu and other water-soluble chemicals that bind tightly to specific sites within the body---these may accumulate). Many lipophilic chemicals pass into organisms cells through the fatty layer of cell membranes more easily than water soluble chemicals.

 The storage of toxic chemical in fat reserves to serves to detoxify the chemical If the appreciable amounts of a toxin are stored in fat and fat and fat reserves are quickly used, significant toxic effects may be seen from remobilization of the chemical

Elimination
Another factor affecting bioaccumulation is whether an break down and / or excrete a chemical. This ability varies among individual organisms and species and also depends on characteristics of the chemical itself Chemicals that dissolve readily in fat but not in water tend to be more slowly eliminated by the body and thus have a greater potential to accumulate.

There are exceptions, however, natural pyrethrins, insecticides that are derived from the chrysanthemum plant, are highly fat soluble pesticides, but they are easily degraded and do not accumulate. The insecticide chlorpyrifos, which is less fat soluble but more poorly degraded, tends to bioaccumulate.

Usually, fat-soluble substances are stored in fatty tissue and begin to accumulate (process off detoxification). This is dangerous when there is demobilization off fat. Accumulation occurs if the time between uptake and elimination is prolonged

Bioaccumulation: a state of dynamic equilibrium

When a chemical enters the cells of an organism, it is distributed and then excreted, stored or metabolized. Excretion, storage and metabolism decrease the concentration of the chemical inside the organism, increasing the potential of the chemical in the outer environment to move into the organism During constant environmental exposure to a chemical, the amount of chemical accumulated inside the organism and excretion reach a state of dynamic equilibrium

 If the environmental concentration of the chemical increases, the amount inside the organism will increases until it reaches a new equillibrium Exposure to large amounts of chemical for a long period of time, however, may overwhelm the equilibrium potentially causing harmful effects If the concentration in the environment decreases the amount inside the organism will also decline

MOLECULAR PROPERTIES FOR BIOACCUMULATION

Bioaccumulation occurs only with molecules with low degradability and correlates with their grade of lipophilicity (1). Organic substances with main bonds of aliphatic and aromatic CC, CH, and CCl (or other halogens) are predominantly nonpolar molecules (Lipophilic) with low water solubility and high stability. They are less susceptible to chemical reactions of hydrolysis, oxidation, and enzymatic attack

(2). On the other hand, bonds with different functional

groups with O, P, N, and other elements turn molecules more polar, soluble, and degraded more easily. Bioaccumulation can occur with molecules between 100 and 600 units of molecular weight with the maximum of 350 (3). Probably this is related to membrane permeability capacity.

A common feature of bioaccumulation is the molecular stability of lipophilic organic substances and the nondegradability of heavy metals. The severity of heavy metals is due to many factors. 1. Metals with Hg, Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb are the most toxic and most studied types followed by metals containing Ni, Al, As, Cr, and other elements. Bioaccumulation can also occur also with essential metals such as Fe, Zn, Cu, Mo, Na, and Ca.

2. Speciation is the anions or other components that constitute the heavy metal molecules. This is important in defining solubility that, for example, is high for sulfate and low for sulphide . Heavy metals bound to organic molecules such as methyl, ethyl or other aliphatic or aryl groups increase penetration capacity through membranes and consequently, have a poisoning effect.

3. The sensivity to the toxic effects of heavy metals and other xenobionts is dependent on the biological material being a microorganism, plant, animal, or type of tissue

BIOACCUMULATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The pollution sources can be released by discharge of substances with uneven distribution in air, water, and soil. The Persistent organic pollutants (POP) or heavy metals can be released to biota A group of organochlorines and polyaromatics, shows that most are found in soil or sediment, whereas for highly volatile substances, most remain in the atmosphere Less than 0.7% of the total remains in vegetation and no more than 21.03% can be found in the aquatic biota

Water Environment The route of pollutant uptake in the biota if from waterborne, adsorption, filtration, or by food chain is an important factor in bioaccumulation the apparent final fate of persistent organic pollutants (POP) is in the flora, fauna, and sediment of the abyss In aquatic plants, fish, and other metazoarians the distribution of the substances are quite distinct between tissues

In the Soil These lipophilic substances move in soil rather slowly by leaching, runoff, and volatilization The main factor that influences bioaccumulation process in the soil is the biodisposibility This property is conditioned by the adsorption/desorption capacity of the different soils and by the chemical nature of the pollutant The main flow of POP generally occurs toward organic matter from soil particles and not to biota, a process called preferential partition The preferential partition toward soil can be the reason why a lack of toxicity on soil microorganisms by pesticide applications was frequently observed, even in high concentrations of pesticides

Soil invertebrates such as earthworms, beetles, slugs, and others can bioaccumulate lipophilic pesticides. The bioaccumulation process could be seen as a soil to soilwater equilibrium followed by a soilwater to worm equilibrium Consumers of this biota in animals of higher trophic levels such as birds can biomagnificate these chemicals.

In the Air The main sources of atmospheric pollution are pesticide spraying with the reverse process of evaporation from soil to air, polyaromatics produced by burning of fuels, and plastic incineration. The rate of entry to the atmosphere and the distance of movement are principally dependent on the vapor pressure of the pollutants and metereological conditions Nevertheless urban and industrial areas, as well as the margins of roads with intense traffic, can have high concentrations of pollutants.

Plants exposed to xenobiotics in the form of vapor, particules, aerosol or larger droplets, can undergo a passive process of foliage adsorption with an uptake mainly in the wax cuticle Direct contact of animals with these chemicals can enter by the respiratory organs, in mammals, or the outer body surface, mainly in insects.