How does movement of toxic compound take place in food chain?

Biomagnification - effects of toxins are magnified (increase) in the environment through food chains. It occurs when the toxic burden of a large number of organism at a lower trophic level is accumulated and concentrated by a predator in a higher trophic level.

How toxins move through the food chain?

When animals eat or swallow the polluted soil or water, the toxins they ingest travel through the food chain, growing in concentration until the predators at the top of the food chain end up ingesting toxic prey. This process is known as biomagnification.

What happens to toxins as they moves through the food chain web?

Organisms such as krill, mussels and fish have been found to retain toxins from phytoplankton in their bodies. These organisms are often not affected by the toxins but pass the toxins on further along the food web. The larger animals get the bigger doses of accumulated toxin.

When toxic or potentially toxic substances build up in the food chain the process is called?

In many cases, animals near the top of the food chain are most affected because of a process called biomagnification. Many of the most dangerous toxins settle to the seafloor and then are taken in by organisms that live or feed on bottom sediments.

How do toxic substances travel through the environment?

Toxicants travel through the environment mainly by means of air and water. Airborne toxins are most common worldwide. Bioaccumulation is the buildup of a toxicant in the tissues of an animal. Biomagnification is when toxins build up in higher concentrations as they move to higher trophic levels.

Food Chains

How do toxicants enters and eliminated from living organisms?

Toxicants are removed from the systemic circulation by biotransformation, excretion, and storage at various sites in the body. Excretion is the removal of xenobiotics from the blood and their return to the external environment via urine, feces, exhalation, etc.

When moving up the food chain what normally happens to the concentration of fat soluble toxins?

The DDT concentration is in parts per million. As the trophic level increases in a food chain, the amount of toxic build up increases. The x's represent the amount of toxic build up accumulating as the trophic level increases. Toxins build up in organism's fat and tissue.

What describes the concentration of toxic chemicals in the food chain?

The term food web biomagnification is used to describe trophic enrichment of contaminants within food webs and refers to the progressive increase in chemical concentrations with increasing animal trophic status.

What is the process of biomagnification?

Biomagnification is the process by which toxic chemicals build up within predators. This typically occurs across an entire food chain and affects all of the organisms but animals higher up in the chain are more impacted.

Why does the concentration of toxic substances increase from a lower to a higher trophic level?

Biomagnification increases the concentration of toxic substances in organisms at higher trophic levels. DDT is an example of a substance that biomagnifies; birds accumulate sufficient amounts of DDT from eating fish to cause adverse effects on bird populations.

Why do toxins become concentrated as biomass passes through a food chain quizlet?

Accumulated toxins become concentrated in successive trophic levels of a food web. This phenomenon is referred to as biological magnification and it occurs because the biomass at any given trophic level is produced from a much larger biomass ingested from the level below.

What is a toxin and what does it do?

Definition of toxin

: a poisonous substance that is a specific product of the metabolic activities of a living organism and is usually very unstable, notably toxic when introduced into the tissues, and typically capable of inducing antibody formation.

How is using of toxic material affecting the ecosystem write a short note on bioaccumulation and biomagnification?

Use of toxic materials such as pesticides, herbicides and fungicides create new problems in the ecosystem. They affect the life of organisms. 2. Some of them may be predators which naturally feed on these pests, others may be the food for other animals.

Which trophic level has the highest concentration of toxic substances in a food chain?

Answer. Top Carnivore or we can say secondary consumer has the highest concentration of toxic substances in a food chain...

Why does biomagnification happen in a food chain?

Biomagnification occurs when the concentration of a pollutant increases from one link in the food chain to another (i.e. polluted fish will contaminate the next consumer and continues up a tropic food web as each level consumes another) and will result in the top predator containing the highest concentration levels.

Which of the following causes biomagnification in food chains?

The major causes of biomagnification are: - The agricultural pesticides, insecticides, fertilizers, and fungicides are very toxic and are released into the soil, rivers, lakes, and seas. These cause health issues in aquatic organisms and humans.

What is meant by biomagnification explain with the help of a food chain?

Biomagnification is a cumulative increase in the concentration of a persistent substance in successively higher trophic levels of the food chain. For example, if an organism is eaten by another organism, these substances move up the food chain and become more concentrated at each step.

What part of the food chain is most affected by toxins?

Bioaccumulation occurs when toxins build up - or accumulate - in a food chain. The animals at the top of the food chain are affected most severely. This is what happens: Small amounts of toxic substances - often pesticides or pollution from human activity - are absorbed by plants.

What describes the concentration of toxic chemicals in the food chain quizlet?

Bioaccumulation occurs within a trophic level, and is the increase in concentration of a substance in certain tissues of organisms' bodies due to absorption from food and the environment.

Why do toxins accumulate at such high levels?

Why do toxins accumulate at such high levels in carnivores? The biomass at any given trophic level is accumulated from a much larger toxin-containing biomass ingested from the level below. Because they are at the top of the energy pyramid they eat the most food and so accumulate the most toxins.

What is toxic accumulation?

Toxic accumulation is one of the reasons repetitive exposures of a chemical produce toxicity while a single exposure may not. In a hypothetical case, as depicted in Figure 2, a concentration of more than 100 milligrams per gram in a target tissue is required for…

Why lipid soluble contaminants are easily absorbed?

Nonpolar chemicals are considered lipophilic (lipid-loving), and polar chemicals are hydrophilic (water-loving). Lipid-soluble, nonpolar molecules pass readily through the membrane because they dissolve in the hydrophobic, nonpolar portion of the lipid bilayer.

What happened to the amount of DDT per organism as you move up the food chain?

When an animal consumes food having DDT residue, the DDT accumulates in the tissue of the animal by a process called bioaccumulation. The higher an animal is on the food chain (e.g. tertiary consumer such as seals), the greater the concentration of DDT in their body as a result of a process called biomagnification.

How a toxic chemical is absorbed?

Absorption may occur through the GI tract, skin, lungs, via the eye, mammary gland, or uterus, as well as from sites of injection. Toxic effects may be local, but the toxin or toxicant must be dissolved and absorbed to some extent to affect the cell. Solubility is the primary factor affecting absorption.

How are toxins excreted?

The kidney excretes toxins through essentially 3 mechanisms: (1) filtration through the glomeruli; (2) passive diffusion, typically from the distal tubules; and (3) active processes where the toxins are transported from the blood as well as into the urine.