What effect can food chains have on the concentration of a pollutant?

The concentration of a pollutant in a food chain always starts with the lowest concentration in the first level, whether plant or animal. Each successive food chain level concentrates the pollutant more in the level species. The pollutant is now localized, but concentrated.

What is the effect of pollution on food chain?

The pollutant continues to accumulate, increasing in concentration, as it moves up the food chain. By the time it reaches the top carnivore, the pollutant will have accumulated to such an extent that it becomes toxic, causing reduced fertility or even death.

Where is the most concentrated pollution in a food chain?

Organisms at the top have a higher tissue concentration of toxins and pollutants than lower levels. The concentration system is due to persistence of the toxins, food chain energetics, and low rate of internal degradation or excretion of the substance. Trophic level I represents the primary producers.

Which organism in this food chain will have the highest concentration of chemical pollutants?

Answer. This is biomagnification, and it means that higher-level predators-fish, birds, and marine mammals-build up greater and more dangerous amounts of toxic materials than animals lower on the food chain.

What is food chain concentration?

Biomagnification (also called food web magnification or food web accumulation) is the progressive increase in the concentration of contaminants in organisms as the trophic level increases. This means lower trophic levels generally have smaller concentrations of contaminants than higher levels.

Key Stage 3 Science (Biology) - Pollution in Food Chains

When the concentration of something increases along a 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 happens to the level of contamination of toxins as you move up the food chain?

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. Predators accumulate higher toxins than prey.

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.

Which type of organism ends up with the greatest concentration of pollutants?

Predatory fish - fish that eat other fish that have eaten still other fish and animals - will have some of the highest concentrations of biomagnified chemicals. Many popular fish are also rich in fat and fish oils, which is where many toxins are stored.

Which level of the food chain is most affected by 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.

How does food cause pollution?

There is a two way relationship between food production and air pollution: food production contributes significantly to air pollution; in turn, air pollution can impact food production. Agriculture is the single largest contributor of ammonia pollution as well as emitting other nitrogen compounds.

How does pollution affect the animals and their food chain?

Scarce Food Sources and Competition

When an animal species dies because of exposure to a pollutant, food may become scarce to another species. For instance, if water pollution causes the death of fish in a lake, the bears in the area would need to seek other sources of food.

What effect does air pollution have on food crops forests and biodiversity?

Eutrophication, the process of accumulation of nutrients, including nitrogen, in water bodies, often results from air pollution. Nutrient overloads in aquatic ecosystems can cause algae blooms and ultimately a loss of oxygen, and of life. As ecosystems are impacted, so is the biological diversity.

Which of the following is an example of pollutants whose concentration increases in each trophic level?

An example is DDT whose concentration increases at each trophic level.

Why does biomagnification happen in a food chain?

Biomagnification process occurs when certain toxic chemicals and pollutants such as heavy metals, pesticides or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) compounds go up the food chain by working their way through the environment and into the soil or the water systems after which they are eaten by aquatic animals or plants, ...

At which level is the concentration of chemicals highest in a food chain and why?

An animal higher up on the food chain tends to have a greater concentration of chemicals because of what it eats. Even though there might be very little concentration of chemicals in the tissues of an organism at the bottom level of the food chain, the concentration of chemicals builds up as you go up the food chain.

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

The toxins build up in their tissues because they are absorbed from the water at a rate faster than they can be metabolized. Biomagnification occurs when slightly larger organisms called zooplankton feed upon the contaminated phytoplankton and in turn absorb POPs into their own tissues at a higher concentration.

Why would tertiary or higher level consumers have the highest concentration of toxins?

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.

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.

How toxins enter and accumulate in food chains?

How do toxins build up through the food web? Persistent chemicals, like some of the plasticisers used to make plastic water bottles, don't break down naturally so remain in the environment for a very long time. They get absorbed by organisms at the bottom of the food chains and build up at higher levels.

Why does concentration of harmful chemicals increase whereas energy level decrease from lower to higher trophic level in a food chain?

Answer. The harmful chemicals mainly consists of pesticides and fertilizers ..as pesticides and fertilizers are non biodegradable they do not get digested or decomposed in any organism due to which it gets accumulated and passed on to higher trophic level.

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 do we see higher concentrations of toxins at the top of food chains energy pyramids?

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 are the effects of pollutants on ecosystem?

For example: pollutants such as sulfur can lead to excess levels of acid in lakes and streams, and damage trees and forest soils; atmospheric nitrogen can reduce the biodiversity of plant communities and harm fish and other aquatic life; ozone damages tree leaves and negatively affects scenic vistas in protected ...

How can pollutants affect organisms?

Air pollutants can poison wildlife through the disruption of endocrine function, organ injury, increased vulnerability to stresses and diseases, lower reproductive success, and possible death.