The Fate of Chlordane and Toxaphene in a Terrestrial-Aquatic Model Ecosystem

Abstract

The fate of ¹⁴C-chlordane and toxaphene have been investigated in a terrestrial aquatic-model ecosystem. The alga, snail, mosquito, and fish accumulated ¹⁴C-chlordane 98,386, 132,613, 6132, and 8258×, respectively, the concentration of ¹⁴C-chlordane in the water. In comparison, ¹⁴C-toxaphene was accumulated by the alga, snail, mosquito, and fish 6902, 9600, 890, and 4247×, respectively, the concentration of ¹⁴C-toxaphene in the water. In parallel studies using unlabeled chlordane and toxaphene and gas chromatographic analysis it was established that the accumulation values for these unlabeled compounds closely approximated the values obtained for the experiments with the labeled compounds.