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Bioamplification, or biomagnification, is the process that results in the increasing toxin concentration in consumers in successive trophic levels.
In other words, the collecting of poison and chemicals in animal's tissues becomes more concentrated when animals are higher up in the food chain.
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∙ 13y ago
Wiki User
∙ 14y agorestoring in pasig rever
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How does DDT get into the bodies of zooplankton?
Herbivores (like deer) eat the plants that it gets spread on. We'll say the plants have 1 piece of DDT. Since each deer eats LOTS of individual plants (we'll say leaves), the DDT in the deer will be more than the leaves had. We'll say this deer ate 100 leaves in one day, now it has 100 pieces of DDT in it. Then a wolf comes along and kills the deer and eats all the deer. Now the wolf has 100 pieces of DDT in it. The wolf kills ANOTHER deer the next day and eats it, and now this wolf has 200 pieces of DDT in it. So on and so on. So the MORE DDT you have in an organism's system, the more toxic it is. We call this bioamplification. Each food level it increases GREATLY in the fatty tissues.
Why are new pesticides better than the old DDT?
Unlike DDT and other chlorine-based insecticides, the newer chemicals are not stored in fat tissue; they are soluble in water, Animals can remove them from their bodies by breaking them down in their livers and excreting them. They can also be broken down within the soil, These new compounds operate like nerve gases, which act by preventing electrical messages from travelling from the brain to the muscles that control breathing or the limbs, This either kills the animal directly or makes it vulnerable to predators. Although somewhat safer than the older chemicals, the newer insecticides are not without their problems. First, they break down quicldy in the soil, and so must be applied to crops more often. Second, these new chemicals are not selective. Because the nerve action of most larger animals is very similar, these insecticides are capable of killing mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Unintended changes to the food web are difficult to predict. Third, animals that have died or been weakened by the toxin put any other animal that eats them at risk through bioamplification. Large dosages of the toxin can still cause death.
Can you show me a diagram for prey on bioamplification?
they all look different The diagram will probably include an inverted pyramid in which the lower levels have the least amount of pesticides/toxins in the bodies of the consumer and succeeding steps having increasing amounts depending on the trophic levels.
How does DDT get into the bodies of zooplankton?
Herbivores (like deer) eat the plants that it gets spread on. We'll say the plants have 1 piece of DDT. Since each deer eats LOTS of individual plants (we'll say leaves), the DDT in the deer will be more than the leaves had. We'll say this deer ate 100 leaves in one day, now it has 100 pieces of DDT in it. Then a wolf comes along and kills the deer and eats all the deer. Now the wolf has 100 pieces of DDT in it. The wolf kills ANOTHER deer the next day and eats it, and now this wolf has 200 pieces of DDT in it. So on and so on. So the MORE DDT you have in an organism's system, the more toxic it is. We call this bioamplification. Each food level it increases GREATLY in the fatty tissues.
Why are new pesticides better than the old DDT?
Unlike DDT and other chlorine-based insecticides, the newer chemicals are not stored in fat tissue; they are soluble in water, Animals can remove them from their bodies by breaking them down in their livers and excreting them. They can also be broken down within the soil, These new compounds operate like nerve gases, which act by preventing electrical messages from travelling from the brain to the muscles that control breathing or the limbs, This either kills the animal directly or makes it vulnerable to predators. Although somewhat safer than the older chemicals, the newer insecticides are not without their problems. First, they break down quicldy in the soil, and so must be applied to crops more often. Second, these new chemicals are not selective. Because the nerve action of most larger animals is very similar, these insecticides are capable of killing mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Unintended changes to the food web are difficult to predict. Third, animals that have died or been weakened by the toxin put any other animal that eats them at risk through bioamplification. Large dosages of the toxin can still cause death.
