A global, cross-system meta-analysis of polychlorinated biphenyl biomagnification

Studies evaluating the mechanisms underpinning the biomagnification of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a globally prevalent group of regulated persistent organic pollutants, commonly couple chemical and stable isotope analyses to identify bioaccumulation pathways. Due to analytical costs constraining the taxonomic and geographic scope, sample size, and the range of compounds analyzed for most studies, and study-to-study variation in methodologies and analytical resolution, how PCBs biomagnify at food web, regional, and global scales remains uncertain. To overcome these constraints, we compiled diet (stable isotopes) and lipid-normalized PCB data from peer-reviewed studies reporting both values and used complementary analyses to evaluate the relative importance of global key PCB drivers and assess ecosystem- and ocean-wide biomagnification trends of sum total PCB concentrations (PCBST), and the concentrations of seven individual PCB congeners, and their sum (PCBå7). We discovered that ...