A Bioenergetics-Based Model for Pollutant Accumulation by Fish. Simulation of PCB and Methylmercury Residue Levels in Ottawa River Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens)

Abstract

A pollutant accumulation model is developed which successfully predicts concentrations of PCBs and methylmercury in tissues of yellow perch (Perca flavescens) from the Ottawa River, Canada. The model is based on pollutant biokinetics coupled to fish energetics. The expression for metabolic rate includes a growth dependent term for estimating the contribution to metabolism of seasonal and annual growth in each age-class. Uptake of pollutant from food is based on caloric requirements for respiration and growth coupled to concentration of pollutant in food and its assimilation efficiency from the diet. Uptake of pollutant from water is based on flow of water past the gills for respiration coupled with concentration of pollutant in water and the efficiency of its assimilation by gills. Pollutant clearance is related to body weight raised to the power of −.58, but is independent of metabolic rate. Under steady state conditions of chronic exposure, the predicted ratio of uptake to clearance is roughly constant at all weights, and the slope of a curve of log pollutant concentration in tissues vs. log body weight can be used to establish the exponent of body weight for clearance.