Nanoparticle Trophic Transfer Simulator

Environmental Source

Water NP concentration 10 µg/L

Nanoparticle Biology

Assimilation efficiency AE 8%

Elimination rate k_e 0.35 /day

Ingestion rate (body mass/day) 15%

Trophic Levels (steady-state burden)

—

Simulated time

0.0 d

TMF (top/bottom)

1.00×

How it works

Each trophic level's nanoparticle body burden C_i follows a one-compartment bioenergetic (Thomann-type) model rather than the octanol-water partitioning used for lipophilic organics like PCBs — engineered nanoparticles are far too large to partition passively across membranes, so uptake is dominated by gut-mediated dietary assimilation:

Producer (level 0):
  dC0/dt = ku·Cwater − ke·C0

Consumer (levels 1-3):
  dCi/dt = AE·IR·C(i-1) − (ke+kg)·Ci

TMF = C_top / C_bottom  (steady state)

AE = assimilation efficiency (fraction of ingested nanoparticle mass that crosses the gut epithelium), IR = ingestion rate as a fraction of body mass per day, k_e = elimination/depuration rate, k_g = growth-dilution rate (held small and fixed here).

Biomagnification (TMF > 1) requires AE·IR to exceed the combined loss rate (ke+kg) — the classic behaviour of fat-soluble pollutants that lodge in tissue and barely clear.
Trophic dilution (TMF < 1) is what most published feeding studies actually find for engineered nanoparticles: low gut translocation (AE typically 1-10%), fast faecal egestion and lysosomal processing keep k_e high, so burden falls at each step up the chain — the opposite of mercury or PCBs.
Drag AE and k_e toward the biological extremes (very high AE, very low k_e) to see the rare case where a nanoparticle formulation would behave like a magnifying pollutant instead.

Each sphere's colour and the glow-particle cloud density around it encode C_i on a shared scale, so a shrinking cloud rising through the food chain is trophic dilution rendered visually.

Producer (algae) Primary consumer Secondary consumer Top predator

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