1. Biological Magnification

2. Biological Magnification:
Increasing concentration of a substance (toxin) in organisms in higher levels of the food chain.
Biological magnification (biomagnification) – explains how a substance can exist in different concentrations in different organisms within an ecosystem
Higher concentrations for organisms higher in the food chain
Lower concentrations for organisms lower in the food chain
Substance (toxin) is transferred by:
Eating other (contaminated) organisms
Absorbing directly from the environment
Organisms higher in the food chain (higher levels) can potentially be more harmed by certain toxins in an environment than organisms lower in the food chain because while the environment may not be holding a high concentration of the toxin, consuming contaminated organisms can eventually lead to built-up toxins in predators.

3. What conditions are necessary for biological magnification to occur?
Substance must be:
Able to be absorbed into food chain
Not easily broken down by environment
Difficult for organisms to break down or digest
Several things must be true of a substance for biological magnification to occur.
The substance must be able to be absorbed at some point in the food chain, or else it would not be able to be magnified.
It must not be broken down easily by the environment, as this would remove it from the food chain.
It must be difficult for organisms to break down or safely digest it, as digestion would also prevent it from being absorbed by organisms higher in the food chain.
While biological magnification can technically happen with any substance that meets these criteria, it is usually studied because of the magnification of harmful substances such as fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy metals. Often, such substances accumulate in an organism's fat cells, as they can not break dissolve in water and exit the body through the urine. When an organism higher in the food chain consumes a creature lower in the food chain, it absorbs fats in its gut. With these fats come the substances previously taken in by the other organism and all of the harmful effects these substances may carry with them. Many plants, aquatic and terrestrial, are prone to absorbing a variety of substances because they often lack the means to effectively digest them.

4. http://users. rcn. com/jkimball. ma. ultranet/BiologyPages/D/DDT_chain

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