Dialuminium nickel tetraoxide

Endpoint summary

Additional information

Though nickel does bioaccumulate in aquatic biota, the bioaccumulation factors are generally low and apparently nickel does generally not become magnified along food chains (McGeer et al. 2003). Some animal species seem to be able to regulate the nickel content of their tissues by controlled uptake and excretion / storage (Outridge and Scheuhammer 1993). An inverse relationship between the BCF and exposure concentration in water has been observed for certain aquatic organisms within the concentration range 1-100 ug/l (Brix and DeForest 2000, McGeer et al. 2003). This may support the hypothesis that within these concentration

ranges active regulation of the uptake of nickel may take place (Muyssen et al. 2003).

In general, Ni bioaccumulation is relatively low. Bioconcentration factors were highest for the marine bivalve, Cerastoderme edule. For example, BCFs for C. edule were as high as 26,500, whereas the highest BCF for any other organism was 5,613 as reported for the cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans. In general, BCFs for other bivalves were < 340 (median = 270). This suggests that the BCFs observed for C. edule are not representative of other bivalves or aquatic organisms. A BAF of 1631 L/kg for C. edule was used in scenarios where this organism is a relevant prey item. For all other aquatic organisms, a calculated BCF value of 270 L/kg was used.

Earthworm BAFs were compiled for various soil types based on a review of the scientific literature and ranged from 0.05 to 1.86 on a dry weight basis. The maximum BAF of 1.86 is from a soil that likely has elevated Ni bioavailability due to its combined low cation exchange capacity (CEC) of 5.3 meq/g and low pH of 4.8. However, BAFs from other studies are similar in magnitude, suggesting that perhaps this maximum BAF is not unique. Although there is an overall trend of decreasing BAFs with increasing soil Ni concentrations (based on the Neuhauser et al. (1995) and Janssen et al. (1997b) studies), the two lowest BAFs (0.05 and 0.07 from Ma,1982) were derived using control soils. Accordingly, all BAFs were pooled and log normally distributed. The resulting BAF geometric mean from the cumulative frequency distribution is 0.30.