The ratio of a substance's concentration in tissue versus its concentration in water in situations where the organism is exposed through water only. BCF measures a chemical's potential to accumulate in an organism's tissue through direct uptake from water (excludes uptake from food). See also "bioaccumulation factor."
Ratio between the concentration of pesticide in an organism or tissue and the concentration in the environmental matrix (usually water) at apparent equilibrium during the uptake phase. (after Rand and Petrocelli, 1985)
Provides a measure of the extent of chemical partitioning at equilibrium between biological medium such as fish tissue or plant tissue and an external medium such as water. The higher the BCF, the greater the accumulation in living tissue is likely to be.
A measure of the tendency for a chemical to accumulate. The ratio of the concentration of a substance in a living organism (mg/kg) to the concentration of that substance in the surounding environment (mg/l for aquatic systems). conc. in organism = mg/kg BCF = _______________________ _______ conc. in environment mg/l
Measure of the tendency for a substance in water to accumulate in fish tissue or in issues of other organisms. The equilibrium concentration of a substance in fish can be estimated by multiplying the concentration of the substance in the surrounding water by the fish bioconcentration factor for that chemical. This parameter is an important determinant for human intake by the aquatic food ingestion route. After USEPA, 1986
the ratio of chemical concentration in the organism to that in surrounding water. Used to describe the accumulation of chemicals in organisms, primarily aquatic, that live in contaminated environments.
Bioconcentration factor is the concentration of a particular chemical in a tissue per concentration of chemical in water (reported as L/kg). This physical property characterizes the accumulation of pollutants through chemical partitioning from the aqueous phase into an organic phase, such as the gill of a fish.