From Trophic Magnification Factors to Multimedia Activity Ratios: Chemometers as Versatile Tools to Study the Fate of Hydrophobic Organic Compounds in Aquatic Ecosystems

We applied passive equilibrium sampling using silicone-based chemometers to nine biota species, sediment, and water in a multimedia aquatic ecosystem. They allowed for direct comparison of the concentration of regulated and emerging hydrophobic organic compounds in the silicone across species as well as the comparison of biota with sediments and water. We derived chemometer-based trophic magnification factors (TMFs) of diverse compounds that agreed with the traditionally derived TMFs. Our exploratory work in water demonstrated that equilibrium with newly designed chemometers can be achieved in few days for compounds with a log KOW up to 6. We calculated activity ratios, dividing the concentrations in the silicone equilibrated with biota by those equilibrated with the abiotic exposure media (sediments and water), assessing the thermodynamics of bioaccumulation and the equilibrium state between the ecosystem compartments. They confirmed that the biota were below equilibrium partitioning relative to sediments and water, as other studies have described. Silicone-based chemometers open up new opportunities and applicability in multimedia aquatic ecosystems for studies that rely on equilibrium partitioning of the in-situ mixtures of chemicals, such as multimedia assessments or application of effect-based methods.