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Forever Chemicals: PFAS Bioaccumulation

Interactive 3D simulation of long-lived (existential) pollutants such as PFAS: a slow-decaying reservoir feeds a food chain where concentration biomagnifies at every trophic step, decades at a time.

Ecology & Conservation Biology3DModerate60 FPS

Some pollutants are effectively existential threats not because they are acutely toxic in the moment, but because they never really leave: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and similar "forever chemicals" persist in soil and water for decades, and every step up a food chain concentrates them further. This simulation models a contamination source feeding a slow-decaying environmental reservoir, then tracks how that concentration biomagnifies through four trophic levels — plankton, small fish, big fish and an apex predator. Adjust the emission rate, half-life and biomagnification factor to see how a source that looks diluted and harmless in the water can still produce dangerously high loads at the top of the food chain, decades later.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D simulation of a long-lived (existential) pollutant such as PFAS: emissions build up in a slow-decaying environmental reservoir with a decades-long half-life, then biomagnify at every step up a four-level food chain from plankton to an apex predator.

Three.jsecologypollutionPFASbioaccumulationfood chain

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install