Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2013C00288:reg:6:p1
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2013C00288
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 6 (pt 1/5)
Character Range: 1467303–1470374

6                   Glossary
Adaptation is (1) change in an organism in response to changing conditions of the environment (specifically chemical), which occurs without any irreversible disruption of the given biological system and without exceeding the normal (homeostatic) capacities of its response, and (2)  a process by which an organism stabilises its physiological condition after an environmental change.
Added contaminant limit (ACL) is the added concentration of a contaminant above which further appropriate investigation and evaluation of the impact on ecological values will be required. ACL values are generated in the process of deriving ecological investigation levels (EILs).
Adsorption is the adhesion of molecules to surfaces of solids.
Ambient background concentration (ABC) of a contaminant is the soil concentration in a specified locality that is the sum of the naturally occurring background and the contaminant levels that have been introduced from diffuse or non-point sources by general anthropogenic activity not attributed to industrial, commercial, or agricultural activities.
An area of ecological significance is one where the planning provisions or land use designation is for the primary intention of conserving and protecting the natural environment. This would include national parks, state parks, and wilderness areas and designated conservation areas.
Bioaccumulation is the net result of the uptake, distribution and elimination of a substance due to all routes of exposure, that is, exposure to air, water, soil/sediment and food.
Bioaccumulation factor is a partition coefficient for the distribution of a chemical between an organism exposed through all possible routes and an environmental compartment or food.
Bioavailability is the ability of a contaminant to interact with the biological system of an organism. Not all of a contaminant that is present in environmental compartments (for example, soil, sediment, water and air) is biologically available—rather, only a fraction of the total (the bioavailable fraction) is available.
Bioconcentration factor (BCF) is a quantitative measure of a chemical's tendency to be taken up from the ambient environment (for example, water for aquatic organisms and soil or soil pore water for soil organisms). The BCF is the ratio of the concentration of the chemical in tissue (or a specific organ) and the concentration in the ambient environment.
Bioconcentration is the net result of the uptake, distribution and elimination of a substance due to exposure in the ambient environment (for example, water for aquatic organisms and soil or soil pore water for soil organisms).
Biological half life is the time needed to reduce the concentration of a test chemical in the environmental compartment or organisms to half the initial concentration, by transport processes, (for example, diffusive elimination), transformation processes (for example, biodegradation or metabolism) or growth.
Biomagnification factor is the quantitative measure of a chemical's tendency to be taken up through