Language: German with bilingual summary in English and German
The conclusions of this literature review dealing with the uptake and accumulation of PCBs by aquatic organisms are as follows:
1. The simple and popularly accepted scheme of magnification of PCBs in food chains by feeding relations is invalid.
2. The uptake of PCBs from the abiotic environment is a complex process controlled in microorganisms mainly by sorption to surfaces according to isothermes.
3. For the other members of merely aquatic biocenoses, partitioning equilibria between water and more or less lipid-rich organisms play a dominating role.
4. It is only in aquatic, lung-breathing animals that the passing on of PCBs in the food chain by feeding relationships becomes important, giving rise to the main source of amplification of PCBs in the non-aquatic members of the upper trophic levels of the food chain.