Fig. 2: Trophic magnification factor (TMF) of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food webs.

A Overall TMF based on a meta-analysis of 1009 effect sizes from 119 aquatic and terrestrial food webs. The mean meta-analytic estimate is represented by a black circle filled with red. The thicker bars indicate the 95% confidence interval, while the thinner bars represent the 95% prediction interval. Light grey circles depict individual effect sizes scaled by precision (inverse of the standard error, as shown in the legend). The number of effect sizes is represented by ‘k’, while the number in parentheses indicates the number of studies. The red dotted line highlights a TMF of 1 (biomagnification above 1 and biodilution below 1). The x-axis was capped at 10 for improved visual readability and does not show 15 effect sizes (for the full version of the plot, see Fig. S6). Source data are provided as a Source Data file. B) Compound-specific TMFs for individual PFAS estimated using a subgroup-correlated effects meta-regression model. A black bubble represents the mean TMF for individual chemicals, and the bars indicate the 95% confidence interval. Bubble size represents the number of effect sizes contributing to the estimate. Bubbles and k values in black represent estimates significantly different from 1 (i.e., p < 0.05). The number of effect sizes is represented by ‘k’, while the number in parentheses indicates the number of studies. Dark and light green shields identify compounds listed in the global treaty the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the European regulatory framework REACH regulation, respectively (for more information on PFAS regulation classification, see the ‘Statistical modelling overview’ paragraph in the Methods section and Supplementary Table 3). Only the results for compounds with at least ten effect sizes are shown in B (for the full version of the plot, see Fig. S1). Source data are provided as a Source data file.