bioconcentrationn.
/ˌbʌɪə(ʊ)ˌkɒns(ɛ)nˈtreɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌbaɪoʊˌkɑnsənˈtreɪʃ(ə)n/ Environmental Science.
Increase in the concentration of a (typically toxic) chemical in the tissue of organisms, esp. progressive concentration in organisms further up the food chain; an instance of this. Cf. bioaccumulation n., biomagnification n.In quot. 1966 describing the concentration of radioactivity in living organisms.
ΚΠ
1966 Pract. in Treatm. Low- & Intermediate-level Radioactive Wastes (Internat. Atomic Energy Agency) 447 Did you check the hazard due to bioconcentration of the radioactivity in the waste and to the entry of the radioactivity into the ecological chain?
1971 Bot. Gaz. 132 102 This investigation was concerned with toxicity and bioconcentration of zinc and cobalt in three species of algae.
1992 B. Weiss in J. Grabowski & G. R. VandenBos Psychopharmacol. 194 As methylmercury ascends the food chain, the process of bioconcentration exposes the higher levels of the chain to gradually increasing amounts.
2008 Sun (Baltimore) (Nexis) 10 May 9 a Tuna and swordfish do not feed in coastal waters, and their high mercury content is entirely the result of bio-concentration up the food chain.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1966