By 202380261
Discussion
The transport of chemical toxicants can occur through both aquatic and terrestrial food chains, although in the former, higher members of the chains, such as fish, can accumulate large amounts of toxicants directly from the medium.
This accumulation occurs because of the large area of gill filaments, their intimate contact with the water, and the high flow rate of water over them.
Given these characteristics and a toxicant with a high partition coefficient between lipid membranes and water, considerable uptake is inevitable.
Toxic chemicals accumulate at the top of the food chain
Figure 6. Aquatic food chains are vulnerable to contamination by POPs and their "dioxinlike" components as a result of the lipophilic characteristics of these chemicals and their resistance to breakdown. Organisms occupying high trophic levels are often exposed to high concentrations of such chemicals as a result of biomagnification.
Source:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248944648_Integrated_Human_and_Ecological_Risk_Assessm ent_A_Case Study_of_Persistent_Organic_Pollutants_POPs_in_Humans_and_Wildlife/figures?lo=1