| Abstract
| - The prevailing view is that long-range transport ofsemivolatile contaminants is primarily conducted by thephysical system (e.g., winds, currents), and biological transportis typically ignored. Although this view may be correctin terms of bulk budgets and fluxes, it neglects the potentialof animals to focus contaminants into foodwebs due totheir behaviors and lifecycles. In particular, gregarious animalsthat biomagnify and bioaccumulate certain contaminantsand then migrate and congregate can become thepredominant pathway for contaminants in many circumstances. Fish and birds provide prominent examples for suchbehavior. This review examines the potential for biovectortransport to expose populations to contaminants. Inaddition, we apply a modeling approach to compare thepotential of biovector transport to other physical transportpathways for a hypothetical lake receiving large numbersof fish. We conclude that biovector transport should not beneglected when considering environmental risks ofbiomagnifying contaminants.
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