What is biomagnification explain it by giving one example?
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Let's say you are a bird of prey, a soaring hawk whose favorite meal is snakes. Snakes are so tasty! They're also fun to catch and you're quite good at it. You don't think much about snakes other than this, but you should. What that snake has eaten, and what its food has eaten, affects you in important ways. Biomagnification, which is the increase in concentration of toxins up the food chain, especially affects you.
Chemicals and toxins accumulate more and more as you move up the food chain, because they do not get broken down in the body. So you may think you are a hawk that just likes to eat snakes, but when you eat a snake, you also eat all of the mice, frogs, and other things that snakes find tasty. And while the small mice and frogs may only have small amounts of chemicals or toxins in their systems, a snake might eat 10 mice and 20 frogs before you get to it. Meaning, you absorb the chemicals and toxins of 10 mice, 20 frogs, and a snake into your own tissues.
Chemicals and toxins accumulate more and more as you move up the food chain, because they do not get broken down in the body. So you may think you are a hawk that just likes to eat snakes, but when you eat a snake, you also eat all of the mice, frogs, and other things that snakes find tasty. And while the small mice and frogs may only have small amounts of chemicals or toxins in their systems, a snake might eat 10 mice and 20 frogs before you get to it. Meaning, you absorb the chemicals and toxins of 10 mice, 20 frogs, and a snake into your own tissues.
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