Now we are going to discuss various aspects of a natural phenomenon: biomagnification and its causes, effect of biomagnification.
Table of Contents
What is Biomagnification:
It is increased concentration of certain chemicals in organisms due to pollution and most of the time the increased concentration of those chemicals become harmful for the organism.
The concentration becomes high from lower trophic levels to higher trophic levels so when an organism of higher trophic levels takes the organism of lower trophic levels the concentration becomes more than the concentration in lower trophic levels organisms.
When this increase in concentration occurs in the case of different heavy metals like arsenic, lead or pesticides like DDT then it causes very serious disease in the organism of higher trophic levels.
Causes of Biomagnification:
Industrial Exhaust:
Different toxic chemicals released from industries area mix into nearby water bodies and soil and from there it enters into the food chain when contamination occurs in any organism in any trophic level of an ecosystem and the concentration increases continuously as the contamination progresses from lower trophic level to higher trophic level.
Agricultural Pollution:
The chemical fertilizers, insecticide, pesticides, fungicides have some toxic heavy metals like mercury, copper, arsenic, and cadmium which cause different serious health issues when it reaches to the aquatic animals and from there to humans.
Marine Mining Process:
In deep sea different toxic minerals are mixed with marine water during the mining of different metals like gold and the toxic metals present in sea water enter into the food chain which accumulate in high concentration in higher trophic levels then if it enters into the human body through the seafood then it causes different serious disorders in humans.
Effects of Biomagnification:
It Cause Different Health Issues in Human:
Result of biomagnification causes higher concentration of toxic chemicals in organisms of higher trophic levels and when they reach in humans then the toxic chemicals enter in the human body at very high concentration.
The toxic metals like lead, mercury, copper, cadmium cause different serious disorders so biomagnification is very harmful for human health. Accumulation of those toxic chemicals in pregnancy cause defective childbirth, high levels of those toxic chemicals in blood cause kidney failure, liver disease, lungs and heart diseases.
Cause Reproductive Problem in Aquatic Animals:
Aquatic organisms face different toxic chemicals directly and the quality of water is very important for their different important phases of their life. The reproduction and development occurs in water in aquatic environments so if toxic chemicals are present in water then the toxic chemicals directly impact on their reproduction and development process.
The toxic chemicals often cause damage to the reproductive organs of the aquatic animals which is not good for their reproductive health and sometimes it reduces the reproductive capacity.
After reproduction, the development process of aquatic animals also occurs in water and the different stages in reproduction of aquatic animals is not well protected like terrestrial animals so they are directly impacted by the toxic chemicals and damaged easily.
Coral Reefs Damage:
Coral reefs have great biodiversity and many species are dependent on the coral reef but due to biomagnification the coral reefs get destroyed so automatically many species destroy because they are highly dependent on coral reefs.
Disruption of Coral Reefs:
When the toxic chemicals reach water bodies from industrial area, agricultural areas, the toxic chemicals contaminate the water bodies and the concentration of those toxic chemicals is very low in the water.
But when the organism of the lower trophic levels absorbs the toxic chemicals then the concentration of toxic chemicals in those organisms becomes high the concentration in water.
Again when the organism of lower trophic level feed by the organism of higher trophic levels then the concentration become much higher in the organism of higher trophic levels and this way the toxic chemicals accumulate in organism of higher trophic levels in very high concentration which cause disruption of food chain.
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