Perfluoroalkyl substances in marine food webs from South China Sea: Trophic transfer and human exposure implication

Water temperature governs organophosphate ester dynamics in the aquatic food chain of Poyang Lake

“…The observed variance in TLs among these species is attributed to factors such as habitat restrictions and dietary diversity. These findings differ from those reported in other studies [ 16 , 32 , 57 ]. In addition, the TL values of aquatic organisms were positively correlated with the carbon source (ranging from 0 to 2.65, mean of 1.63) in Poyang Lake (Pearson's r = 0.75, R 2 = 0.56) ( Fig.…”

“…S13a–b ). The results showed that benthos exhibited a higher bioaccumulation of OPEs than wild fish, which was in line with the conclusion drawn in a previous study [ 32 , 63 ]. The reason may be that the metabolization of pollutants in benthos was weaker than that in collected wild fish, resulting in difficulty in their excretion [ 26 ].…”

“…S11 ). Thus, an analysis of these aquatic organisms showed that they belong to the same aquatic food web in Poyang Lake [ 32 , 57 ].…”

“…The carbon source values of other aquatic organisms were greater than 1, except for Parafossarulus sinensis (0.40) and Sinotaia quadrata (0) ( Table S3 ). The results showed that these organisms were more dependent on pelagic sources, suggesting that the collected organisms belong to the same aquatic food web [ 32 , 58 ]. However, large benthic invertebrates in this study showed a poor probability of being preyed upon by the collected wild fish, which might instead prey on some small bivalves and mussels [ 16 ].…”

“…The bioaccumulation and biomagnification of OPEs in all aquatic organisms were evaluated by previous research with minor modifications [ 16 , 32 ]. The stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values were calculated to estimate the trophic levels (TLs) and carbon sources of aquatic organisms ( Table S3 ).…”