You are here:
EVALUATION OF TWO METHODS FOR PREDICTION OF BIOACCUMULATION FACTORS
Citation:
Burkhard, L P., D D. Endicott, P. M. Cook, K. Sappington, AND E. L. Winchester. EVALUATION OF TWO METHODS FOR PREDICTION OF BIOACCUMULATION FACTORS. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 37:4626-4634, (2003).
Description:
Two methods for deriving bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in development of water quality criteria were evaluated using polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) data from the Hudson River and Green Bay ecosystems. Greater than 90% of the BAFs predicted by using field measured biota-sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs) were within a factor of 5 of their measured values for both ecosystems. Greater than 90% of the BAFs predicted by using the chemical's n-octane/water partition coefficient (Kow) were within a factor of 5 of their measured values for the Green Bay ecosystem and for three of the six sampling locations on the Hudson River. Poorer predictive ability with the Kow method for the other three sampling locations was believed to be due to the existence of environmental conditions not representative of longer term ecosystem conditions incorporated into the method.
BAFs were compared. The within ecosystem and across ecosystems comparisons demonstrated a two to five fold decrease in variability (expressed as ratios of coefficients of variation, percentile ranges, and confidence ranges) for predicted BAFs in comparison to BAFs.