About Lesson
- If a persistent compound enters the biosphere it can be detected anywhere.
- It is transferred from one organism to another through the food chain chlorinated hydrocarbon (e.g.: DDT) have been detected in remote Arctic region, 1000 miles away from the point of their introduction. Even though distribution tends to dilute the compound they still cause concern.
- They do so because of the phenomenon called bio magnifications, which measures the increase in concentration of the chemical compounds in biological organisms compared to its concentration in the environment.
- In the food web, chemical is neither degraded nor excreted to the significant level. So the concentration of such chemical increases as they are transferred to higher trophic levels (Food or nutrition levels in Food chain).
- As a result, the top carnivores such as birds and large fishes etc. may carry a body burden of the pollutant (that chemical) that exceeds the environmental concentration by a factor of 104 to 106 or even more.
- A biomagnified pesticide may cause death or serious health problems to the organism.
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