If a soil sample has a number of pollutants which are identifiable and non detectable, is it possible to determine the bioaccumulation factor in an organism surviving in that particular soil?
If 'below detection limit' applies to only a few selected contaminants and you don't have the chance to re-issue the analysis: There's always the possibility to use you're chemical analysis' detection limit value in the calculation (or half of the detection limit), mark result and state this deviation in the table caption.
However, I'd advise caution, sometimes co-detection (e.g. heavy metals in mass spectrometry) can lead to artificially high detection limits. Would be good to check if the 'limits of detection' for every contaminant in question
- are similar across your soil samples, and
- weather they are within range of reported soil concentrations (from a certain area or within a standardized soil)
Like this, i'd say, you can be reasonably certain of your calculation results.
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