Question

What is the phenomenon of bioconcentration in the food web? Explain it with the example of detection of pesticides like ddt in mother’s milk

Answer 1

erbivores (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.