1 / 5

BIOLOGICAL MAGNIFICATION

BIOLOGICAL MAGNIFICATION. By: Matt and Kristi. What Is Biological Magnification?. A trophic process in which retained substances(ex: pesticides or heavy metals) become more concentrated with each link in the food chain.

torn
Download Presentation

BIOLOGICAL MAGNIFICATION

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. BIOLOGICAL MAGNIFICATION By: Matt and Kristi

  2. What Is Biological Magnification? • A trophic process in which retained substances(ex: pesticides or heavy metals) become more concentrated with each link in the food chain

  3. Similar to bioaccumulants: Toxic substance (ex:heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls) that slowly builds up in concentration in living organisms (including bacteria, algae, fungi, and plants).

  4. Why Does It Happen? • Because the biomass at any given trophic level is produced from a much larger biomass ingested from the level below, thus meaning the top carnivores are most affected

  5. Examples • Biological magnification of chlorinated hydrocarbons, which includes many pesticides, such as DDT and PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) • PCB in Great Lakes affect food chain with affecting the herring gull eggs nearly 5,000 times greater than in phytoplankton • DDT (1950s) travels in water to places, and first sign was when populations of pelicans, ospreys, and eagles, and birds at the top of the food chain, were decreasing • Build up of DDT in the bird’s tissue interfered with the deposition of calcium in their eggs, thus making the eggs to weak to be incubated by the parents, they just break

More Related