Bioconcentration

Bioconcentration is a process that results in an organism having a higher concentration of a substance than is in its surrounding environmental media, such as stream water. Bioconcentration of a substance is correlated to the octanol-water partition coefficient (K_OW) of the substance. For more information see the definition of the related term bioaccumulation. Bioconcentration differs from bioaccumulation because it refers to the uptake of substances into the organism from water alone. Bioaccumulation is the more general term because it includes all means of uptake into the organism.

References

• Barron, M.G., 1990, Bioconcentration--Will water-borne organic chemicals accumulate in aquatic animals?: Environmental Science & Technology, v. 24, no. 11, p. 1612-1618.
• Spacie, A., McCarty, L.S., and Rand, G.M., 1995, Bioaccumulation and bioavailability in multiphase systems, chapter 16 in Rand, G.M., ed., Fundamentals of Aquatic Toxicology, 2d ed.: Washington, D.C., Taylor and Francis, p. 493-521.
• Nowell, L.H., Capel, P.D., and Dileanis, P.D., 1999, Pesticides in stream sediment and aquatic biota--distribution, trends, and governing factors: Boca Raton, Fla., Lewis Publishers, 1001 p.
• International Union of Pure And Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), 1993, Glossary For Chemists Of Terms Used In Toxicology: Pure and Applied Chemistry, v. 65, no. 9, p. 2003-2122 (on-line version posted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine).
• IUPAC, 1996, Glossary of Terms Relating to Pesticides: Pure Applied Chemistry, v. 68, no. 5, p. 1167-1193.

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