What is bioaccumulation and how does it affect species in a food chain?

1 Answer
Nov 15, 2017

Bioaccumulation is the accumulation of substances in an organism.

Explanation:

Bioaccumulation is the accumulation of substances such as pesticides in an organism. Following the rules of biomagnification, if this organism is consumed, the substance is magnified to I believe 10x its original impact and passed along each level amplifying by 10x each level. So lets say that a plant is treated with a pesticide and a rabbit eats it. The rabbit would have the pesticide in it but 10x stronger than it was on the plant. When a snake eats the rabbit, the pesticide is now in the snake but 10x the strength that it was when it was in the rabbit and so forth.