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Biomagnification is a process causing the concentration of a substance (crosses) to increase at higher levels of the food chain. In this scenario, a pond has been contaminated with toxic waste. Further up the food chain, the concentration of the contaminant increases, sometimes resulting in the top consumer dying.
Food chain in a Swedish lake. Osprey feed on northern pike, which in turn feed on perch which eat bleak which eat crustaceans.. A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web, often starting with an autotroph (such as grass or algae), also called a producer, and typically ending at an apex predator (such as grizzly bears or killer whales), detritivore (such as earthworms and woodlice ...
Biomagnification is another process related to bioaccumulation as the concentration of the chemical or metal increases as it moves up from one trophic level to another. [1] Naturally, the process of bioaccumulation is necessary for an organism to grow and develop; however, the accumulation of harmful substances can also occur. [7]
There are two major food chains: The primary food chain is the energy coming from autotrophs and passed on to the consumers; and the second major food chain is when carnivores eat the herbivores or decomposers that consume the autotrophic energy. [16] Consumers are broken down into primary consumers, secondary consumers and tertiary consumers.
A simplified food web illustrating a three-trophic food chain (producers-herbivores-carnivores) linked to decomposers. The movement of mineral nutrients through the food chain, into the mineral nutrient pool, and back into the trophic system illustrates ecological recycling. The movement of energy, in contrast, is unidirectional and noncyclic.
There is a slight biomagnification of TBT that has been demonstrated in the lower part of the marine food chain (i.e., planktonic organisms, invertebrates, and fishes). However, the biomagnification of TBT into larger marine animals such as marine mammals is debatable. [13] Toxic effects in some species occur at 1 nanogram per liter of water.
Consumer–resource interactions are the core motif of ecological food chains or food webs, [1] and are an umbrella term for a variety of more specialized types of biological species interactions including prey-predator (see predation), host-parasite (see parasitism), plant-herbivore and victim-exploiter systems.
The phenomena of radioactive bioaccumulation, bioconcentration and biomagnification, however, are especially known to sea level. They are caused by the recruitment and retention of radioisotopes by bivalves, crustaceans, corals and phytoplankton, which then amounted to the rest of the food chain at low concentration factors. [17]