Bioakkumuleeruvad

Bioakkumuleeruvad is a term derived from the Finnish word "bioakkumuloituminen," which describes the process by which a substance accumulates in an organism at a rate faster than it is lost. This accumulation can occur in individual organisms over their lifetime or across successive generations within a population. Substances that bioaccumulate are often persistent in the environment and are not easily metabolized or excreted.

This phenomenon is particularly concerning for substances that are toxic. As these substances are absorbed from the environment, such as through contaminated food or water, they can reach higher concentrations within an organism than are present in the surrounding environment. This can lead to a range of adverse health effects, depending on the specific substance and the organism.

Bioaccumulation can lead to biomagnification, where the concentration of a substance increases at each trophic level in a food chain. For example, a substance might be present in low concentrations in plankton, but when small fish eat large amounts of plankton, the substance concentrates in their bodies. Larger fish that eat these smaller fish then accumulate even higher concentrations, and so on, up the food chain. This makes top predators, including humans, particularly vulnerable to the effects of bioaccumulative toxins. Common examples of substances that bioaccumulate include heavy metals like mercury and lead, and certain persistent organic pollutants like PCBs and DDT.