Fish/sediment concentration ratios for organic compounds.

The concentration ratio of chlorinated or polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in fish to the sediments from their habitat increases with hydraulic retention time of the basin. Fish/sediment ratios for chlorinated hydrocarbons are about 3 orders of magnitude higher than for aromatic hydrocarbons with the same octanol-water partition coefficient. Normalizing for sediment concentrations and animal concentrations of chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons, the body burdens of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in different phyletic groups are consistent with the inverse of their mixed-function oxygenase activity; the order for concentrations is mollusks > polychaetes = crustaceans > fish. 32 references.