Guidance on interpreting biota tissue concentrations for bioaccumulation assessment: summary
Published 20 July 2022
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2022
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1. Chief Scientist’s Group report summary
This project investigated the relationship between the total body burden of a chemical in whole organisms and tissue-specific concentrations. The report’s findings will aid the Environment Agency and others to interpret and compare chemical concentrations in wildlife tissues during hazard evaluation.
1.1 Background
Chemical concentrations are frequently reported in wildlife samples for specific tissues (e.g. muscle, liver, etc.). Studies that focus on food chain bioaccumulation compare these values between species or with concentrations in potential food items or environmental compartments (e.g. water) to calculate bioaccumulation factors (BAF) or biomagnification factors (BMF). This contrasts with standard laboratory measures of bioaccumulation potential, which rely on whole body concentrations. Therefore bioaccumulation conclusions drawn from field data are often not directly comparable with those based on laboratory studies and can only be used as part of a weight of evidence argument in a bioaccumulation assessment.
1.2 Approach
The aim of the study was to investigate the possibility of estimating the total body burden of a chemical within an organism based on individual tissue concentrations or to normalise concentrations such that they can be compared with others. A literature review was carried out and the relationship between chemical concentrations in different tissues was explored.
1.3 Results
The study found that there was insufficient data currently available to establish a robust tissue-to-whole body burden extrapolation. However, there was an indication that this could be feasible when more data becomes available. The main issue identified was that insufficient details are typically reported for specific parameters, e.g. for the purposes of lipid normalisation.
1.4 Conclusions
The study has increased our understanding of the factors that affect chemical distribution within wildlife. Furthermore, it has identified important shortcomings in currently available data and/or the reporting of data which need to be addressed. It has provided guidance on the additional data that should be reported during biota monitoring studies to enable this extrapolation in future.
1.5 Project details
This summary relates to information from the following project:
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Title: Guidance on interpreting biota tissue concentrations for bioaccumulation assessment
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Project manager: Steve Dungey, Chemicals Assessment Unit
This project was commissioned by the Environment Agency’s Chief Scientist’s Group, which provides scientific knowledge, tools and techniques to enable us to protect and manage the environment as effectively as possible.
Enquiries: research@environment-agency.gov.uk
© Environment Agency