What happens to DDT as it moves 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.

What is DDT in food chain?

Dichlorodiphenytrichloroethane (DDT) is an organochlorine insecticide with a broad spectrum of activities such as the control of pest in forest and on agricultural crops, household pests, vector-borne diseases like malaria, typhus, etc.

Why does DDT become more concentrated higher in the food chain?

The concentration effect occurs because DDT is metabolized and excreted much more slowly than the nutrients that are passed from one trophic level to the next. So DDT accumulates in the bodies (especially in fat).

How does DDT enter food chain?

Answer and Explanation: DDT enters the food chain after it gets spread, either from getting on insects, plants, or water runoff.

What happens to the concentration of DDT in each trophic level?

Solution : DDT concentration continuously increases in successive trophic levels in a food chain. This phenomenon is known as biological magnification or biological amplification.

Biomagnification and the Trouble with Toxins

How does DDT move through food chain eventually harming bald eagles?

Larger fish ate the smaller fish and acquired the DDT molecules in their tissues. Eventually, bald eagles ate the larger fish with the DDT and DDT built up even more in the eagle's body tissues. This caused the eagle's egg shells to become soft and easily breakable, limiting their reproductive capacity.

What trophic level does DDT enter a food web?

Answer and Explanation: DDT enters a food web at the lowest level, when small organisms like insects eat part of a plant infected with this toxic substance.

What is the relationship between the trophic level and the amount of DDT found in the body of these organisms?

The higher the trophic level of an organism, the higher the concentration of DDT. DDT is excreted from the body very slowly and it is stored in fat. Thus, when an organism consumes another organism, the DDT in the prey accumulates in the predator.

What do you notice about the levels of DDT going from water to phytoplankton and on up to Pelicans?

The level of DDT in water is the same but as it goes into phytoplankton and up to pelicans, it started to gradually increase. When toxins increase as you go up the food chain/food web, it is called biomagnification.

Where is the highest concentration of DDT?

The highest amount of DDT and derivatives residues were found in carnivore fish species, C. striatus which is the top predator of food web. In contrast, the lowest residue levels of DDT and derivatives were found in the omnivores, P. gonionotus.

What is the impact of DDT on birds and other higher trophic level organisms?

Rather, DDT and its relatives alter the bird's calcium metabolism in a way that results in thin eggshells. Instead of eggs, heavily DDT-infested Brown Pelicans and Bald Eagles tend to find omelets in their nests, since the eggshells are unable to support the weight of the incubating bird.

Which of the following trophic level has highest concentration of DDT?

The snake is a tertiary consumer. So the DDT concentration will high in snake.

How does DDT affect the aquatic food chain?

It is present in low amount in water and reaches a high concentration in fish-eating birds through biomagnification. Very high concentrations of DDT disturb calcium metabolism in birds, which causes thinning of eggshell and their premature breaking, eventually causing decline in bird populations.

What animals does DDT affect?

DDT has been suggested to be toxic to a range of wildlife including birds and marine animals, and its metabolite DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene) causes eggshell thinning of certain bird species such as bald eagle and brown pelican, leading to declines of their populations (1,2).

How do pesticides affect the food chain?

Beyond direct toxicity, pesticides can significantly reduce, change the behavior of, or destroy populations of plants and animals. These effects can ripple up and down food chains, causing what is known as a trophic cascade.

What effect did DDT have on birds?

Populations of bald eagles and other birds crashed when DDT thinned their eggs, killing their embryos. The pesticide, known for accumulating in food webs and persisting in soil and river sediment, was banned in the United States in 1972.

What is the impact of DDT on fish eating bird species?

Biomagnification of DDT leads to an increase in its concentration at the higher trophic level and its higher concentration in birds leads to the disturbance in their calcium metabolism. This causes the premature breaking of eggs in birds due to thinning of eggshell.

What is the impact of DDT on fish eating birds?

High concentrations of DDT disturb calcium metabolism in birds, which causes thinning of eggshell and their premature breaking, eventually causing a decline in bird populations.

Where is DDT stored and accumulated within an organism?

DDT tends to accumulate in the fatty tissues of insects, wildlife, and people, but produces no known toxic effects while it is stored in the fat (2).

What is the most significant effect of DDT towards a lake ecosystem over time?

DDT's devastating effect on the aquatic environment has been thoroughly studied. Due to it's low solubility, it has a greater rate of bioaccumulation in water, and thus poses a great long-term threat to aquatic wildlife.

Is the following in the correct sequence of increasing order of DDT concentration?

Hence, the correct answer is 'Water-0.003ppm, zooplankton- 0.04ppm, small fish-0.5ppm, large fish-2ppm, fish eating birds-25ppm'

What did DDT do to bald eagles?

The culprit was DDT - a widely used pesticide that, when ingested, prevented the eagles from reproducing successfully by weakening their offsprings' eggshells. The bald eagle population declined and became critically endangered.

How did DDT bioaccumulate in bald eagles?

DDT was sprayed on agricultural crops, at which point it entered the water cycle. It was carried by surface-water runoff to rivers and lakes (figure 6). DDT then entered the bald eagle food chain through aquatic producers, which were then eaten by fish, which are the main food source for bald eagles.

Why do high levels of DDT in birds such as bald eagles and brown pelicans lead to declines in population sizes?

The high concentration of DDT interferes with the calcium metabolism of birds and induces eggshell thinning. Premature breakage. This causes the population to decrease. Additional Information: Bald eagle and other bird populations collapsed as DDT thinned their eggs killing their embryos.

Why does DDT magnify within food chains when certain other chemicals do not?

Explanation: DDT increases or biomagnifies if we look at a food chain. DDT is fat-soluble, meaning animals store it in fatty tissues. It also takes a relatively long amount of time to break down.