DEVELOPMENT AND VERIFICATION OF A BIOACCUMULATION MODEL FOR ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS IN BENTHIC INVERTEBRATES

A novel nonequilibrium, steady-state model is presented to predict the bioaccumulation of organic chemicals by filter feeding and detritivor ous benthic invertebrates. This model accounts for chemical disequilib ria between overlying water, diet and sediment, biomagnification, and benthic invertebrate feeding preferences and strategies. The results o f a field study of PCB congener bioaccumulation in various benthic inv ertebrate species in western Lake Erie are reported to verify the mode l. A comparison of model-predicted and field data demonstrate that the predictability of this model is better than that of the widely used e quilibrium partitioning model for assessing bioaccumulation in benthic organisms and for developing sediment quality criteria.