What is the meaning of bioaccumulate?

: the accumulation over time of a substance and especially a contaminant (such as a pesticide or heavy metal) in a living organism.

What is another term for bioaccumulation?

In this page you can discover 4 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for bioaccumulation, like: biomagnification, toxicant, organochlorine and allergenicity.

What is bioaccumulation short answer?

Bioaccumulation is the gradual accumulation of substances, such as pesticides or other chemicals, in an organism. Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a substance at a rate faster than that at which the substance is lost or eliminated by catabolism and excretion.

What is an example of bioaccumulation?

Bioaccumulation is the gradual build up over time of a chemical in a living organism. Pesticides are an example of a contaminant that bioaccumulates in organisms. Rain can wash freshly sprayed pesticides into creeks, where they will eventually make their way to rivers, estuaries, and the ocean.

Why do they bioaccumulate?

Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a toxic substance at a rate greater than that at which the substance is eliminated.

How can bioaccumulation affect humans?

Exposure to PBTs has been linked to a wide range of toxic effects in humans and wildlife. Some of those adverse effects include but are not limited to disruption of the nervous and endocrine systems, reproductive and developmental problems, immune system suppression, and cancer.

What is the opposite of bioaccumulation?

Biodilution is also a process that occurs to all trophic levels in an aquatic environment; it is the opposite of biomagnification, thus when a pollutant gets smaller in concentration as it progresses up a food web.

What is bioaccumulation and biomagnification?

Bioaccumulation takes place in a single organism over the span of its life, resulting in a higher concentration in older individuals. Biomagnification takes place as chemicals transfer from lower trophic levels to higher trophic levels within a food web, resulting in a higher concentration in apex predators.

Why bioaccumulation is a concern?

The bioaccumulation and biomagnification of toxic contaminants also can put human health at risk. When humans eat organisms that are relatively high in the food web, we can get high doses of some harmful chemicals.

What toxins are bioaccumulate?

Chemicals such as PCBs, DDT, dioxins, and mercury are all persistent chemicals. Because they don’t break down and go away, these chemicals are a problem when it comes to fish that we eat. Especially when you consider that these chemicals can also bioaccumulate, or build up, in fish, wild game, and your body, too.

How does DDT bioaccumulate?

When an animal consumes food having DDT residue, the DDT accumulates in the tissue of the animal by a process called bioaccumulation. The higher an animal is on the food chain (e.g. tertiary consumer such as seals), the greater the concentration of DDT in their body as a result of a process called biomagnification.

What are the negative effects of bioaccumulation?

If bioaccumulators destroy keystone species in an ecosystem, such as predators that control prey populations, it can lead to the loss or extinction of many species. PCBs, PAHs, heavy metals, some pesticides and cyanide are all bioaccumulators.

What is the meaning of bioaccumulate? : the accumulation over time of a substance and especially a contaminant (such as a pesticide or heavy metal) in a living organism. What is another term for bioaccumulation? In this page you can discover 4 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for bioaccumulation, like: biomagnification, toxicant, organochlorine…