Opname van PCB's door vis in uiterwaardplassen

Veel uiterwaardplassen en andere oppervlaktewateren in Nederland worden gedomineerd door bodemwoelende vissen, zoals brasem. Door hun voedselgedrag komen deze vissen rechtstreeks in aanraking met het sediment, inclusief de daarin nog steeds aanwezige organische verontreinigingen. Ondanks het feit dat de PCB's al jaren in het sediment aanwezig zijn en wellicht met de tijd veel minder beschikbaar zijn geworden, wijzen onderzoeksresultaten erop dat de opname van PCB's uit uiterwaardsedimenten door vis nog steeds substantieel is. Tevens bleek dat de Tenax-methode een betere correlatie oplevert met PCB-opname door bodemwoelende vissen dan meting van het totaalgehalte van PCB's in sedimen

Bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants from floodplain lake sediments: linking models to measurement

The main research questions of this research were (1) what is the extent and nature of bioavailability of sediment-bound polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and (2) what are the effects of lake ecosystem structure on fate and bioaccumulation of PCBs and PAHs. Fast-desorbing fractions in the sediment of floodplain lakes were estimated by the 6-h Tenax-extractable fractions with a correction factor. These fractions varied between 1 and 40% and did not show a clear trend with log KOW. This means that contaminants in these sediments were available, but to a smaller extent than total concentrations would suggest. The 6-h Tenax extractable concentration often correlated better with bioaccumulation than the total extractable concentration in sediment. Despite the reduced availability, benthivorous fish and invertebrates in floodplain lakes still rapidly accumulated substantial amounts of PCBs. PAHs were accumulated relatively less because PAHs were relatively less available than PCBs due to their stronger sorption to carbonaceous materials, also referred to as soot or black carbon. For fish, metabolic transformation caused even lower PAH concentrations. Contaminants that have been present in the sediment for longer periods of time (years to decades), were less available for Tenax extractions as well as for uptake by biota in different parts of the food web than contaminants that were recently added. Thus, aging may translate directly into reduced uptake at higher trophic levels. Nutrient additions in enclosures with benthivorous fish had a positive effect on PCB accumulation by these fish. Measured bioaccumulated concentrations of PCBs and PAHs in invertebrates in flood plain lakes were not influenced greatly by seasonal effects or ecological structure. Although effects were statistically significant, their magnitude in terms of accumulation factors was small, which may have been caused by the similar sediment composition and bioavailability of contaminants in our systems. Differences between compounds were much larger than differences due to ecosystem structure, seasons, or species composition. As for total masses of PCBs and PAHs in certain compartments however, lake ecosystem structure appeared to have a large influence on the biomass of biota and therefore also on the mass distribution of PCBs and PAHs in biotic compartments. Thus, changes in ecosystem structure strongly influenced PCB and PAH dynamics, although concentrations within the biotic compartments were not significantly influenced by biotic biomass. As for bioaccumulation modelling, when aquatic exposure concentrations were quantified accounting for sorption to carbonaceous materials, model results improved substantially. Including metabolic transformation and sediment uptake in the model accounted for a further improvement of the model fit. Implications are discussed for food chain bioaccumulation modeling, bioavailability assessment, sediment policy making and floodplain lake management

Black Carbon and Ecological Factors affect in situ biota sediment accumulation factors for hydrophobic organic compounds in flood plain lakes

Ecological factors may play an important role in the bioaccumulation of polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Geochemical and bioaccumulation behavior of these chemicals also appears to be related to the presence of black carbon (BC) in sediment. In situ PCB and PAH biota to sediment accumulation factors (BSAF) for benthic invertebrates, as well as 6h Tenax-extractable (fast-desorbing) concentrations and lake characteristics (including BC in sediment), were determined for different seasons in chemically similar but ecologically different lakes (fish-dominated turbid, algae-dominated turbid, and macrophyte-dominated). BSAFs could be explained with a model including a term for Freundlich sorption to BC and a term for uptake from fast-desorbing concentrations in ingested sediments. Freundlich coefficients for in situ sorption to BC (KF) were calculated from slow desorbing fractions and BC contents and agreed well with literature values for K F. Furthermore, in contrast to BSAFs based on total extracted concentrations, Tenax-based BSAF showed a strong positive correlation with log K0W. We therefore argue that BC caused slow desorption and limited BSAFs in these lakes. Seasonal and lake effects on BSAFs were detected, while the differences between oligochaetes and other invertebrates were small for PCBs and within a factor of 10 for PAHs. BSAFs for pyrogenic PAHs were much lower than for PCBs, which was explained by stronger sorption to BC and lesser uptake from ingested sediment

Impacts of manipulated regime shifts in shallow lake model ecosystems on the fate of hydrophobic organic compounds

Regime shifts in shallow lakes may significantly affect partitioning of sediment-bound hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs) such as polychlorobiphenyls (PCB) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). In replicated experimental model ecosystems mimicking the alternative stable states ‘macrophyte-dominated’ and ‘suspended solid – phytoplankton dominated’, we tested the effects of macrophytes and benthivorous fish presence on mass distribution and bioaccumulation of hexachlorobenzene, PCBs and PAHs. HOC mass distributions and lipid-normalized concentrations in sediment (Soxhlet- and 6-h Tenax-extractable), suspended solids, macrophytes, periphyton, algae, zooplankton, invertebrates and carp revealed that mobile, i.e. less hydrophobic or less aged HOCs were more susceptible to ecological changes than their sequestered native counterparts. Macrophytes were capable of depleting considerable percentages of the bioavailable, fast desorbing HOC fractions in the sediment upper (bioactive) layer, but did not have a significant diluting effect on lipid-normalized HOC concentrations in carp. Carp structured invertebrate communities through predation and stimulated partitioning of HOCs to other system compartments by resuspending the sediment. These results show that shifts in ecosystem structure have clear effects on fate, risks and natural attenuation of sediment-bound organic contaminants

Uptake of sediment-bound bioavailable polychlorobiphenyls by benthivorous carp (Cyprinus carpio)

It is unclear whether accumulation of sediment-bound chemicals in benthivorous fish depends on the degree of sequestration in the sediment like it does for invertebrates. Here, we report on the potential of slow and fast desorbing sediment-bound polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) fractions for accumulation in carp (Cyprinus carpio) in lake enclosures treated with different nutrient dosesIt is unclear whether accumulation of sediment-bound chemicals in benthivorous fish depends on the degree of sequestration in the sediment like it does for invertebrates. Here, we report on the potential of slow and fast desorbing sediment-bound polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) fractions for accumulation in carp (Cyprinus carpio) in lake enclosures treated with different nutrient doses. Routes of PCB uptake were quantitatively evaluated for 15 PCBs (log K-0W range 5.6-7.8) using model analysis. Fast-desorbing PCB fractions in the sediment were defined as the ratio of 6-h Tenax-extractable to (total) Soxhlet-extractable concentrations. These fractions varied between 4 and 22% and did not show a clear trend with log K-0W. However, bioaccumulation of PCBs in carp correlated much better with Tenax-extractable concentrations than with total-extractable concentrations. Nutrient additions in the enclosures had a positive effect on PCB accumulation. Model results show that PCB uptake in carp can be explained from (1) uptake through invertebrate food, (2) uptake from fast-desorbing fractions in ingested sediments, and (3) uptake from water, where PCBs are in partitioning equilibrium with fast-desorbing fractions. The main implication of this research is that fast-desorbing PCB fractions in sediments have great predictive potential for bioaccumulation in benthivorous fish