BIOLOGICAL MAGNIFICATION
Definition :- Biological magnification is the increasing concentration of toxic substances ( poisonous chemicals) to build up within organisms that take place at each stage of food chain.
Biological magnification also known as Biomagnification or Bioamplification
The buildup of toxic increases at each stage of food chain progressively. For example, when a lion eats a crocodile, it ingests the toxin substance in the crocodile, which include the toxins from all the animals that the crocodile has ever eaten, which may include the toxins from the plants that those animals have ever eaten.
Such as pesticides, in the tissues of tolerant organisms are successively higher levels in a food chain.
The buildup of toxic substance within a single organism is called Biological Accumulation or Bioaccumulation.
Due to biological magnification, the amount of toxic substances (poisonous chemicals such as pesticides or mercury) is greater in the bodies of organisms (including humans also), that consumes other organisms and plants containing harmful poisons.
Biomagnification occur when some toxic substance dont get broken down or filtered out of the body. When anything is eaten by a living organism, then some amount of toxin is directly eaten along with it, so the toxic buildup is magnified at each step in the food chain.
Mostly, the commonly used insecticide DDT ( Dichloro- Diphenyl- Trichloroethane) was banned in 1970s for use in agriculture purpose, in many countries but can still be founded in the body of some animals.
Why so important to know?
As biological magnification is so important to understand because, we should aware about what we intake and what we are giving to our environment, we should be extra careful. It is directly affecting our health, as we humans are at the top level of occupying in the food chain. The maximum concentration of toxic substances has consumed by our body.
Let us know how?
We use many pesticides, insecticides like DDT for food crops and mercury for fishing purposes to protect them from many diseases. As these chemicals were down either in the soil or in water bodies. These are absorbed by plants and in water bodies these are taken by aquatic plants and animals. Hence, these chemicals were not degradable, they get accumulated at each tropic level.
SOURCES :
- wikipedia
- youtube
-REKHA KUMARI