Most of the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) body burden
accumulated by lake trout (Salvelinus
namaycush)
from
the Laurentian Great Lakes is from their food. We used
diet
information, PCB determinations in both lake trout and
their prey, and bioenergetics modeling to estimate the ef
ficiency with which Lake Michigan lake trout retain PCBs
from their food. Our estimates were the most reliable
estimates to date because (a) the lake trout and prey
fish sampled during our study were all from the same
vicinity
of the lake, (b) detailed measurements were made on
the PCB concentrations of both lake trout and prey fish
over
wide ranges in fish size, and (c) lake trout diet was
analyzed in detail over a wide range of lake trout size.
Our
estimates of net trophic transfer efficiency of PCBs to
lake trout from their prey ranged from 0.73 to 0.89 for
lake
trout between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. There
was
no evidence of an upward or downward trend in our
estimates
of net trophic transfer efficiency for lake trout between
the ages of 5 and 10 years old, and therefore this
efficiency
appeared to be constant over the duration of the lake
trout's adult life in the lake. On the basis of our
estimates,
lake trout retained 80% of the PCBs that are contained
within their food.
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